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^America 

"'^ and the 

War in Europe 

A Symposium 



THE WOMEN OF LIEGE 
BY EVA KATHERINE GIBSON 

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WAR 

BY A. MAURICE LOW. M. A. 

Washington Correspondent of the London Morning Post 

Author of "The American People, a Study in National Psychology' 

GERMANY INTERPRETED BY A 
GERMAN-AMERICAN 

BY "AN AMERICAN CITIZEN of German Parentage" 

THE VICE REGENT OF GOD AND 
HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE 

BY WILLIAM H. SKAGGS 
WITH RED EYES 

A CHANT OF HATE AGAINST ENGLAND 
BY ERNST LISSAUER 

THE DAY 
BY HENRY CH APPELL 



Compiled by William H. Skaggs 



Price: Twenty-five cents 



GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WAR 

SOME PRESS COMMENTS 

"There can be no doubt as to "Sir. Low's being the: finest, 
clearest, most unanswerable statement of England's case as yet pre- 
sented. It is a noble utterance which covers every point in the most 
dignified language, and it is difficult to conceive how anything stronger 
and truer can ever be written. 

"The British may well rest their case on Mr. Low's admirably 
expressed ai)peal to the fairness and intelligence of the civilized 
world." 

— Philadelphia Puljlic I^edger. 

"The best because the most comjjact anrl lucid statement of the 
English case that has yet appeared is the reply of A. Maurice Low, 
the Washington correspondent of the London Morning Post, to the 
German statement put forth by Ambassador Count von I'ernstorff. 

■'Mr. Low puts it unanswerably as follows * '■' * 

— Louisville Courier-Journal. 

"(Jn this page is printed a remarkable article by Mr. A. Maurice 
Low, Washington correspondent of The London Aforning Post, and 
a writer of distinction and ability. Mr. Low makes a thorough study 
of the German contentions and both his argument and his conclu- 
sions are intensely interesting and instructive. The contentions 
upon which Count von r^)ernstorff, (ierman Ambassador to the United 
States, bases his entire case are examined in detail and proved to be 
absolutely fallacious and untenable, in the light of the official corre- 
spondence and the facts. 

"Mr. Low not only justifies (ireat Britain's participation in the 
war as an obligation of honor \\hich could not be avoided l)ut he 
finds that the entire responsibility for the war rests with (jermany, 
and that any jjeace is impossible until the main issue is decided an;l 
German militarism definitely destroyed beyond all hope of resurrec- 
tion. 

"The article is certainly cne of the best of its kind that has l)een 
written, and should be read by all those who desire a concise and 
authoritative statement of the points at issue and an examination of 
the German defence. It is the first dut}' of patriotism to l)e informed 
on the present war, so far as essentials and principles are concerned, 
and Canadians generally will be well advised to read Mr. Low's 
discussion." 

.*•, • — The Toronto I )aily News. 

• « * 

"The ])u1*)lishers haxe thought it desirable to include in this 
volume for the purpose of giving to the presentation of the case 
against Germany a full measure of completeness, a statement from 
the well known writer Mr. A. Maurice Low, who discusses without 
heat, but with the authority of a scholarly publicist, the evidence and 
the documents on the causation of the war, and the relative res]X)n- 
sibilities of England and Germany." 

— Publisher's Note to "'The Real Truth .\l)out Germany." 



S^Wyo.-<:^^^i> ^ 'OO Alil>^ixrv'v-J -^^ 



Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfined, 
Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o'er mankind, 
While Prayers, to heal her wrongs, move slow behind, 

Homer-Pope's Trans. 



America 



and the 



War in Europe 

A Symposium 



War is one of the greatest plagues that can afflict humanity; 
it destroys religion; it destroys States; it destroys families. Any 
scourge is, in fact, preferable to it. Famine and pestilence become 
as nothing in comparison with it. — Luther. 

If Europe should ever be ruined, it will be by its warriors. 

— Montesquieu. 

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of 
preserving peace. — George Washington. 



0\ 



By transfer 
The White House. 




EVA KATHERINE GIBSON 



The Women of Liege 

By Eva Katherine Gibson. 

The rose of dawn flashed red 
On the grey old Flemish towers 
When they heard the thundering tread 
Of the haughty foeman's powers; 
Then the bugles rang out clear, 
Sang shrill through the startled village. 
"To arms! The foe is here! 
And their hosts breathe war and pillage. 
Lo, they march through our harvest fields 
To crush fair France, our neighbor; 
To arms! brave Belgian lads, bring gun and saber. 
Oh the hurrying to and fro 
In the quaint old houses: 
Oh the thrill in the gallant hearts 
'Neath the rough blue blouses. 
Oh the kisses and swift farewells 
With tears choked back: "No sighing, 
Now we fight," said the women of Liege, 
"There'll be time at eve for crying." 
In the grey old factories' walls 
They banded, these wives and mothers, 
To fight for their native land 
By the side of their gallant brothers: 
"For life without honor is base," 
Said the loyal women of Flanders. 
So they welcomed the foe with flame 
Till the arrogant grim commanders 
Swore with deep throated oaths: 
"By heaven, they- make this a siege! 
They are wildcats, these women of Liege!" 
"Lest the rifle, the bayonet blade. 
These weapons our own hands made 
Be turned 'gainst our own loved. land 
Let us make 'tho we die, here our stand. 
Courage my sisters! now aim." 
And the startled s6ldiers fled; . • 
As tht cold blue steel flashed red. 
Love and Peace are the rule 
That women should follow, clearly. 
But peace at the price of right 
May be bought too dearly. 
For Love without Valor is naught 
But a selfish clinging 

3 



To hold back the spirit of man 

From its brave up-springing; 

And the courage that dies for Truth, 

In a cause so splendid, 

Will make its full worth felt 

'Ere the struggle is ended. 

You may crush with your trampling hordes. 

All the flowers in the blood-stained grasses 

But the souls of those Women of Liege 

Will defy your close packed masses. 

And the heroes such mothers bear, 

'Tho they die they will never falter 

'Till the light of a new day dawn 

Upon Freedom's altars. 

While the whole earth trembles and shakes 

With the sound of your guns grim roaring, 

There's a mightier power than yours 

O'er the smoke of your battles soaring: 

'Tis the spirit of man made free, 

And it counsels wiser 

Than the roar of your big Krupp guns. 

Or the mandate of King or Kaiser. 

"A land without ruins is a land without memories — a land without 
memories is a land without history. A land that wears a laurel crown 
may be fair to see ; but twine a few sad cypress leaves around the 
brow of any land, and be that land barren, beautiless and bleak, it 
becomes lovely in its consecrated coronet of sorrow, and it wins the 
sympathy of the heart of history. Crowns of roses fade — crowns of 
thorns endure. Calvaries and crucifixions take deepest hold of human- 
ity — the triumphs of might are transient — they pass and are forgot- 
ten — the sufferings of right are graven deepest on the chronicle of 
nations." 



The political history of Germany, from the accession of Frederick 
in 1740 to the present hour, ha.s admittedly no meaning unless it be 
regarded as a movement towards the establishment of a world empire, 
with the war against England as the necessary preliminary. 

— Professor Cramb. 

Germany is fighting to establish the validity and permanence 
of Machtpolitik— the doctrine that might makes right. * * * 
If the Germans succeed in establishing the doctrine of Macht- 

4 



politik in Europe, they frankly say that they will endeavor to extend 
its sway throughout the world. German domination in Europe, 
however noble the ambitions and visions of some of its advocates, 
would eventually mean forcible conflict with the theories of gov- 
ernment which at present prevail in the United States, Argentina, 
Brazil and Chile, the four great republics of the Western world. 

—The Outlook. 

He is a fool, and that nation is a fool, who, having the power to 
strike his enemy unawares, does not strike and strike his deadliest. 

— Frederick the Great. 

The state's highest moral duty is to increase its power. 

The state is justified in making conquests whenever its own advan- 
tage seems to require additional territory. 

In fact, the state is a law unto itself. Weak nations have not the 
same right to live as powerful and vigorous nations. 

— Gen. von Bernhardi. 

The average German, whom the foreigner sees, is aggressive, self- 
assertive, loud in his manner and talk, inconsiderate, petty, pompous, 
dictatorial, without humor; in a word, bumptious. He has, in many 
cases exceedingly bad table manners and an almost gross enjoyment 
of his food; and he talks about his ailments and his underwear. His 
attitude toward women, moreover, is likely to be over-gallant if he 
knows them a little and not too well, and discourteous or even inso- 
lent if he is married to them or does not know them at all. 

— "A German-American" in The Outlook. 

Gentlemen, we are now in a state of necessity, and necessity 
knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxemburg, and perhaps 
are already on Belgian soil. That, gentlemen, is contrary to the 
dictates of international law. * * * France could wait, but we 
could not wait. A French movement upon our flank upon the lower 
Rhine might have been disastrous. So we were compelled to over- 
ride the justified protests of the Luxemburg and Belgian govern- 
ment. The wrong — I speak openly — that we are committing we will 
endeavor to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached. 

— The Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, to the German 
Reichstag on August 4. 

Only one is master of this country. That is I. Who opposes me, I 
shall crush to pieces. ... Sic volo, sic jubeo. We Hohenzollerns 
take our crown from God alone, and to God alone we are responsible in 
the fulfillment of duty. ... Suprema lex regis voluntas. 

Thanks to the valor of my heroes, France has been severely pun- 

5 



ished. Belgium, which interfered with our attack, has been added to 
the glorious provinces of Germany. 

— Kaiser William. 

Necessity is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. 

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign 
troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms, 
never ! never ! never ! 

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force 
of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may 
blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter, — but 
the king of England can not enter; all his forces dare not cross the 
threshold of the ruined tenement. 

— William Pitt (Earl of Chatham). 

It is only the vulgar minds that mistake bigness for greatness; for 
greatness is of the soul, not of the body. In the judgment which his- 
tory will hereafter pass upon the forty centuries of recorded progress 
towards civilization that now lie behind us, what are the tests it will 
apply to determine the true greatness of a people? Not population, 
not territory, not wealth, not military power ; rather will history ask 
what examples of lofty character and unselfish devotion to honor 
and duty has a people given? What has it done to increase the vol- 
ume of knowledge? What thoughts and what ideals of permanent 
value and unexhausted fertility has it bequeathed to mankind? What 
works has it produced in poetry, music, and other arts to be an unfail- 
ing source of enjoyment to posterity? The small peoples need not 
fear the application of such tests. 

The world advances, not, as the Bernhardi school supposes, only 
or even mainly by fighting; it advances mainly by thinking and by 
the process of reciprocal teaching and learning; by the continuous 
and unconscious co-operation of all its strongest and finest minds. 

— James Bryce (Viscount Bryce). 

We shall not sheathe the sword, which we have not lightly drawn, 
until Belgium has recovered more than she has sacrificed ; until France is 
adequately secured against menace ; until the rights of the smaller nation- 
alities have been placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the 
military domination of Prussia is finally destroyed. 

— Prime Minister Asquith. 

If, beginning with the eleventh century, we examine what has 
happened in France from one half century to another, we shall not fail 
to perceive, at the end of each of these periods, that a twofold revolu- 
tion has taken place in the state of society. The noble has gone down 
on the social ladder, and the commoner has gone up ; the one descends 

6 



as the other rises. Every half century brings them nearer to each 
other, and they will soon meet. 

The principle of the sovereignty of the people, vi^hich is always 
to be found, more or less, at the bottom of almost all human institu- 
tions, generally remains there concealed from view. 

In America, the principle of the sovereignty of the people is not 
either barren or concealed, as it is with some nations ; it is recognized 
by the customs and proclaimed by the laws ; it spreads freely, and 
arrives without impediment at its most remote consequences. 

— De Tocqueville. 

The influence over government must be shared by all the people. 
If every individual which composes their mass participates of the ulti- 
mate authority the government will be safe. 

In a government bottomed on the will of all, the life and liberty of 
every individual citizen becomes interesting to all. 

— Thomas Jefferson. 

It ;is the eternal strug"gles between these two principles — right 
and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that 
have stood face to face from the beginning of time ; and will ever con- 
tinue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the 
other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever 
shape it develops itself. — Abraham Lincoln. 

When once Belgium was invaded, every circumstance of na- 
tional honor and interest forced England to act precisely as she did 
act. She could not have held up her head among nations had she 
acted otherwise. In particular, she is entitled to* the praise of all 
true lovers of peace, for it is only by actions such as she took that 
neutrality treaties, and treaties guaranteeing the rights of small powers 
will ever be given any value. * * * 

Germany's attack on Belgium was not due to any sudden im- 
pulse. It had been carefully planned for a score of years, on the 
assumption that the treaty of neutrality was, as Herr von Bethmann- 
Hollweg observed, nothing but "paper", and that the question of 
breaking or keeping it was to be considered solely from the stand- 
point of Germany's interest. The German railways up to the Bel- 
gian border are for the most part military roads, which have been 
double-tracked with a view to precisely the overwhelming attack 
that has just been delivered into and through Belgium. 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 



War's Only Excuse 

(From the "Cours de Morales," a French school book.) 
No ! I cannot consent to be a murderer or to die myself save for 
a good that is higher than life, save for a duty that is more imperious 
than the essential duty of respecting the lives of others. Now, there 
is one thing of supreme value, one thing that is the very foundation 
of my moral duties, the very reason for civilization ; it is the right of 
being a free man ; it is the right of guarding intact my dignity as a 
citizen ; it is the right to go and come as I please in my ow^n country, 
to pay no tax save that of my ovv^n levying, to speak my ow^n language 
freely, to be subject to the law of no despot, man, or nation of prey. 

A Contrast 

The Emperor William at Berlin, March 29, 1901: 

"We will be everywhere victorious even if we are surrounded by 
enemies on all sides and even if we have to fight superior numbers, for 
our most powerful ally is God, who, since the time of the Great Elector 
and Great King, has always been on our side." 

Abraham Lincoln, during the darkest hours of the Civil War, in 
response to the question whether he was sure that God was on "our 
side" : 

"I do not know ; I have not thought about that. But I am very 
anxious to know whether we are on God's side." — The Outlook. 



Great Britain and the War* 

(Reprinted by permission of Mr. Low.) 

By A. Maurice Low. 

In a recent interview given by Count von Bernstorjff, the German 
Ambassador, he based his defense of Germany's position upon these 
assertions : 

1. That Russia provoked the war. 

2. That had Russia not been certain of the support of Great Brit- 
ain she would not have made war upon Austria. 

3. That, Austria having been forced into war, Germany was com- 
pelled by her treaty engagements to come to the support of her ally. 

4. That England, because of her jealousy and enmity of Germany, 
encouraged both Russia and France to make war on Austria and Ger- 
many, although England had no cause to be jealous of Germany. 

Having thus proved to his own satisfaction that Germany is the 
helpless victim of British duplicity and Russian brutality and French 
malignity, Count Bernstorff wonders why the preponderating sym- 
pathy of America is with England and her Allies and against Germany 
and Austria. 

Documents Tell the Story 

I shall not attempt to answer the first assertion, because it is un- 
necessary. Every one who has read the British and German official 
diplomatic correspondence knows the truth. To that correspondence 
Count Bernstorff can add nothing and from it I can subtract nothing. 
That correspondence requires neither explanation nor elucidation. It 
shows precisely what the British government did in its attempts to 
prevent war ; it shows what Count BernstorflF's sovereign failed to do 
to curb his ally. If that correspondence does not convince the reader 
certainly nothing that Count BernstorflF can say will alter his opinion ; 
nothing that I might write will influence any person's calm judgment. 
Those telegrams that passed between ministers and ambassadors in 
the fateful days of July are now history, and to the judgment of his- 
tory they may be safely left. 

Count Bernstorff asserts that if Russia had not been certain of the 
support of England she would not have forced war upon Austria. The 
tu quoque is the weakest form of argument. Nevertheless I feel justi- 
fied in asking if Austria had not felt absolutely certain of the sup- 
port of Germany would she have challenged Russia? The answer is. 
obvious. Single handed Austria is no match for Russia. Count Bem- 

*Reprinted, in response to many requests, from the New York Herald, of 
September 21, 1914. 

The discussion of the so-called German "peace proposals" has since been 
added. 

9 



storff knows that; the professional advisers of the Austrian Emperor 
knew it. The military resources of Russia are so incomparably supe- 
rior to those of Austria that only a desperate gambler, willing to put 
his crown on the tatrle as the stakes, would have risked the throw of 
the cards. And Austria did not have a free hand. She was ham- 
pered on her flank by Servia, a little nation, but so powerful that Aus- 
tria's ill-starred campaign against her has collapsed. Austria could 
not disguise the menace of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She had vio- 
lated the treaty of Berlin when she absorbed them into her empire in 
pursuance of her "civilizing mission," and their people looked for the 
day when they might throw off the Austrian yoke. 

But I do not rely on assertion. For ten days prior to July 31 Sir 
Edward Grey, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, had 
labored day and night to prevent war. On that day he sent a telegram 
to Sir Edward Goschen, the British ambassador in Berlin, expressing 
the hope that the conversations then proceeding between Austria and 
Russia would lead to a satisfactory result. The stumbling block hith- 
erto, he explained, had been Austrian mistrust of Servian assurances 
and Russian mistrust of Austrian intentions with regard to the inde- 
pendence and integrity of Servia. In order to overcome these suspi- 
cions Sir Edward Grey suggested Germany might sound Vienna and 
he would agree to sound St. Petersburg whether it would be possible 
for the four disinterested powers — Germany, Italy, France and Great 
Britain — to offer to Austria that she should obtain full satisfaction of 
her demands on Servia, provided they did not impair Servian sover- 
eignty and Servian integrity, Austria already having declared her 
willingness to respect them; and Russia would be informed that the 
four disinterested powers would undertake to prevent Austrian demands 
going the length of impairing Servian sovereignty and integrity, and 
he added: 

"I said to the German ambassador this morning that if Germany 
could get any reasonable proposal put forward which made it clear 
that Germany and Austria were striving to preserve European peace, 
and that Russia and France would be unreasonable if they rejected it, 
I would support it at St. Petersburg and Paris, and go the length of 
saying that if Russia and France would not accept it His Majesty's 
government would have nothing more to do with the consequences ; 
but otherwise I told the German ambassador that if France became 
involved we should be drawn in." 

In the light of the above can any honest man say that Russia felt 
certain of the support of Great Britain? As a matter of fact, neither 
Russia nor France was sure of what Great Britain would do, and her 
course was to be governed solely by whether they were "reasonable." 
What Sir Edward Grey wanted above and beyond everything else 

10 



was to preserve the peace of Europe, and to accomplish that, to save 
the world from the horrors it is now experiencing, he was willing to 
throw the great influence of England on the side of Germany and Aus- 
tria if they were sincerely working for peace and to leave France and 
Russia to their fate if they were unreasonable and determined to pro- 
voke war. 

Further confirmation, if any is needed, that neither France nor 
Russia knew what England would do and that she did not declare 
her position until circumstances forced her to take up arms is to be 
found. On that same day, July 31, the French Ambassador in London 
was trying to induce British support of France in case she was 
attacked by Germany and was urging Sir Edward Grey to promise 
to come to the assistance of France. But Sir Edward Grey would make 
no promise. There were circumstances, he explained, that might pre- 
vent England from remaining neutral and force her into war as the 
ally of France, but he could enter into no engagement. On August 
1 the British ambassador in Vienna telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey, 
"There is great anxiety to know what England will do." Austrian 
anxiety was shared by Russia. Thus as late as the first of August 
neither of Britain's subsequent Allies, Russia and France, nor one of 
her soon to be foes, Austria, knew what England would do. 

And yet Count Bernstorff says the war would not have happened 
had not Russia been certain of the support of England. 

What about Germany ? Did she feel certain what England would 
do? The correspondence is of peculiar interest as tending to contro- 
vert the German Ambassador's assertion that Germany was dragged 
into war. From the beginning of the critical relations between Aus- 
tria and Russia, owing to the despatch of the Austrian ultimatum to 
Servia, Sir Edward Grey had regarded the matter as a quarrel between 
Austria and Servia in which the other European Powers were not con- 
cerned. He knew, of course, of the Austro-German alliance, as he 
knew of the Franco-Russian alliance, but he saw no reason why those 
alliances should be invoked. Germany and France he considered "dis- 
interested" Powers and placed them in the same category as Italy, also 
the ally of Germany and Austria, and England, neither the ally of Rus- 
sia or France, but who might be compelled to support France and 
Russia under certain circumstances. If Russia and Austria must fight. 
Sir Edward Grey held, it was bad enough, but that was better than to 
see the whole of Europe at war. Germany was not bound to come to 
the support of Austria unless she was determined to force France into 
the war; France need not go to the assistance of Russia unless she was 
looking for a casus belli against Germany. 

France had joined with England in using her influence with Rus- 

11 



sia to keep the peace. France had given no provocation to Germany, 
On July 29 Sir Edward Goschen telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey he 
had been invited that evening to call upon the Chancellor, who said 
that if Austria was attacked by Russia Germany would be compelled 
to come to her assistance. Provided that the neutrality of Great Brit- 
ain were certain, every assurance would be given to the British gov- 
ernment that Germany aimed at no territorial acquisition at the ex- 
pense of France. Sir Edward Goschen asked what about the French 
colonies, but the Chancellor said that he "was unable to give a similar 
undertaking in that respect." 

As for Belgium — whose neutrality it will be remembered Germany 
had guaranteed — "it depended upon the action of France what opera- 
tions Germany might be forced to enter upon in Belgium, but when the 
war was over Belgium integrity would be respected if she had not 
sided against Germany." As a further bid for English neutrality the 
Chancellor added, with almost childlike simplicity, as if vague prom- 
ises in the future counted for anything in an emergency so great, "he 
had in mind a general neutrality agreement between England and Ger- 
many, though, of course, it was at the present moment too early to 
discuss details, and an assurance of British neutrality in the conflict 
which the present crisis might produce would enable him to look for- 
ward to the realization of his desire." 

And Count von Bernstorfif would ask the American people to 
believe that Germany was trying to avoid war with France. 

Sir Edward Grey's reply was spirited and to the point. There is 
nothing finer in the entire correspondence. It exhibits the Secretary of 
State indignant at the offer of a bribe, but still trying to preserve 
peace and showing Germany how that could be done. 

Sir Edward telegraphed the next day to the British Ambassador : — 

"His Majesty's government cannot for a moment entertain the 
Chancellor's proposal that they should bind themselves to neutrality 
on such terms. 

"What he asks us is in elTect to engage to stand by while French 
colonies are taken and France is beaten, so long as Germany does not 
take French territory as distinct from the colonies. 

"From a material point of view such a proposal is unacceptable, 
for France, without further territory in Europe being taken from her, 
could be so crushed as to lose her position as a great Power and 
become subordinate to German policy. 

"Altogether apart from that, it would be a disgrace for us to make 
this bargain with Germany at the expense of France, a disgrace from 
which the good name of this country would never recover. 

"The Chancellor also in effect asks us to bargain away whatever 

12 



obligation of interest we have as regards the neutrality of Belgium. 
We could not entertain that bargain, either." 

Having rejected the bribe offered by Germany, having with dig- 
nity and restraint repudiated the suggestion that Great Britain could 
remain passive while France was being crushed to satisfy the over- 
weening ambition of Germany, Sir Edward Grey still showed that the 
one thing of all others he desired was peace, and he pointed out the 
way by which that object might be attained. He instructed his Ambas- 
sador to say to the Chancellor : 

"One way of maintaining good relations between England and 
Germany is that they should continue to work together to preserve the 
peace of Europe. If we succeed in this object the mutual relations of 
Germany and England will, I believe, be, ipse facto, improved and 
strengthened. For that object His Majesty's government will work 
in that way with all sincerity and good will." 

Is this the language or the act of a man trying to entice Russia 
into making war on Germany? 

Sir Edward Grey was to give still further proof of his sincerity 
and his almost fanatical attachment to the cause of peace. In that 
same despatch to Sir Edward Goschen he continued : — 

"And I will say this: — If the peace of Europe can be preserved 
and the present crisis safely passed my own endeavor will be to pro- 
mote some arrangement to which Germany could be a party, by which 
she could be assured that no aggressive or hostile policy would be pur- 
sued against her or her allies by France, Russia and ourselves, jointly 
or separately." 

Could anything be more straightforward, more binding, than this 
voluntary pledge? For years Germany has told the world that she was 
not seeking war, that her enormous army and her powerful navy, 
rapidly rivaling that of Great Britain, were safeguards of peace and to 
prevent France and Russia from attacking her. Sir Edward Grey 
bound himself to bring about an arrangement by which Germany would 
be assured she need have no fear of the hostility of France, Russia or 
Great Britain. Had Germany been sincere in her protestations that 
she was ready to defend herself, but reluctant to provoke her neigh- 
bors, she would eagerly have accepted Sir Edward Grey's offer, but, as 
Sir Edward Goschen reported, the Chancellor received the communi- 
cation "without comment." 

And Count von Bernstorff imposes upon American intelligence by 
trying to have it believed that Great Britain was persuading Russia 
to go to war. 

Germany Began the War. 

Count von Bernstorff asserts that Germany did not begin the war. 
It is not material who strikes the first blow when two men are deter- 

13 



mined to quarrel, but for the vindication of history the falcts should, not 
be garbled. On August 2, before Russia, France or Great Britain had 
commited a single act of hostility against Germany, she violated the 
neutrality of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. On the preceding daj'- 
Sir Edward Grey had telegraphed Sir Edward Goschen that the author- 
ities at Hamburg had forcibly detained British merchant ships, and he 
requested that the German government send immediate orders for the 
release of the vessels, as the effect on public opinion would be deplor- 
able unless that was done. The British government, he added, was 
most anxious to avoid any incident of an aggressive nature, and he 
hoped the German government would be equally careful not to take 
any step which would make the situation impossible. These vessels 
were released the next day after their cargoes had been forcibly seized, 
an act that Sir Edward Grey protested against. 

On August 3 the German government sent an ultimatum to Bel- 
gium demanding free passage for her troops and threatening to use 
force if the request was refused. Sir Edward Grey protested against 
Germany violating Belgian neutrality, which Germany, in common 
with England, had guaranteed. On August 4 the German government 
informed the Belgian government that it would enter Belgium, "in 
view of the French menaces." For the first time Germany used the 
fear of France as a pretext for war. Hitherto she had pretended Rus- 
sia was a menace ; now she suddenly discovered it was France that 
threatened. On that same day Sir Edward Grey telegraphed to Sir 
Edward Goschen that he continued to receive numerous complaints 
from British firms of the detention of their ships at Hamburg, Cux- 
haven and other German ports. This action, Sir Edward declared, 
was totally unjustifiable and in direct contravention of international 
law and of the assurances given by the Imperial Chancellor. 

Thus Germany had thrice offended against the law of nations and 
the moral law. She had violated the neutrality of Luxemburg, whose 
neutrality she had guaranteed. She had violated the neutrality of 
Belgium, whose neutrality she had agreed to respect. She had seized 
British vessels and their cargoes while Great Britain and Germany 
were still at peace. 

Count von Bernstorff, speaking as German Ambassador to the 
United States, asserts that Germany did not strike the first blow. 

Having thus exposed a few of the errors into which the German 
Ambassador has been unconsciously betrayed in dealing with the 
political phases of this wanton war, attention may be usefully called to 
some of His Excellency's lapses when he discusses the psychology of 
American public sentiment. He mournfully recognizes the fact that 

14 



American sentiment is hostile to Germany and explains it by saying that 
almost immediately after the declaration of hostilities England cut the 
German transatlantic cable, so that the United States should be mis- 
informed as to the truth and only news passing through London and 
Paris could reach America. 

This is childish. The cable was cut as a military measure, as 
Count von Bernstorff very well knows, and for no other reason. The 
American people have the news and the truth; they get the news in 
their newspapers and the truth they can find by reading the German 
and British White Papers, which have been published in this country. 
They have heard the truth about the destruction of Louvain, the 
slaughter of women and children in Antwerp, the scattering of mines 
in the North Sea and the tribute exacted from Brussels and Liege in 
defiance of the humane spirit of the age. The German Ambassador 
ought not to regret that the cutting of the cable has made it difficult 
for news to reach America; rather he ought to pray that other cables 
may be quickly cut, so that no further knowledge of German atrocities 
can reach the United States. 

Count von Bernstorff professes not to be able to understand Eng- 
lish enmity and cannot find any justification for it, although he ac- 
knowledges England has long been jealous of Germany's increasing 
prosperity and her growing navy. It is curious what tricks memory 
plays. For years Germany — not her people or individuals, but her 
officials and governing classes — has shown its dislike of England and 
ofiFensively rattled the sabre in the sound of English ears. There was 
the Kaiser's telegram to Kruger, for instance; the obscene insults to 
the late Queen during the Boer war; the Kaiser's sneers and slurs at 
King Edward; the crisis precipitated over Agadir and the revenge he 
took in making France dismiss Delcasse. 

It was these things and hundreds of others that made it so difficult 
for the well wishers and friends of Germany in England — and I have 
no apology to make for counting myself as one of them — to use their 
influence, much or little as the case might be, to bring about better 
relations with Germany. There is no military party in England. Eng- 
land, with the sole exception of the United States, is the one great 
Power that is not subordinate to the military. No Englishman wanted 
to go to war with Germany. No Englishman could see that there was 
anything to be gained by war with Germany. Time after time Ger- 
many gave us provocation and we kept our temper. Those of us who 
believe that war is usually a crime, the most insensate act nations can 
commit, believed that the German Emperor was too sensible of his 
obligations to his people and posterity, too wise not to recognize the 
desperate risk he took in plunging Europe into war when the honor 
of his country was not impugned nor national safety endangered. 

15 



The fact is the Kaiser held all too lightly the military power of 
Great Britain. He is an autocrat, a militarist, and therefore he cannot 
understand the aspirations and the motives of a democracy. That a 
country so powerful as Great Britain, with a world-flung Empire, 
should content itself with a standing army insignificant compared with 
the millions Germany is able to call to the colors; that it should rely 
for its defense on volunteers instead of resorting to conscription ; that 
the civil and not the military power should be supreme — these things 
to the Kaiser were incongruous and were to be explained only on the 
theory that England was a decaying nation, that the England of the 
Napoleonic wars had lost its virility, that, engrossed in money making 
and trade, it had become steeped in luxury and enjoyment and was 
either too cowardly or too indifferent to fight. And accepting that as 
a premise, it is easy to see how he reached his conclusion — England 
would not fight ; England was not to be feared. 

Part of the Kaiser's reasoning was correct. England does not want 
to fight, but the mistake the Kaiser made was in believing that Eng- 
land would not fight. She will fight, as the Kaiser has learned to his 
cost, when honor is at stake, and when not to fight would be, as Sir 
Edward Grey said, "a disgrace from which the good name of this 
country would never recover." She might have escaped war had she 
been content to see Belgium outraged and the plighted fate of nations 
mocked and the covenants between peoples broken by dismissing a 
treaty as "only a scrap of paper" ; she could have imitated the example 
of Italy and found a pretext for deserting her allies; she might have 
bought immunity by accepting the insincere promises of Germany and 
claiming she had given greater assistance to France through her 
diplomacy than she could render by force of arms. These things Eng- 
land might have done. These things England would have done if the 
Kaiser's estimate of the English character had not been founded on 
false premises. But these things England did not do. Forced to fight, 
she has fought, because there are times when a nation, similar to an 
individual who loves peace and abhors a brawl, must either defend 
himself or in shame no longer dare claim kinship of his fellows. 

It does not become the German Ambassador to accuse England 
of being jealous of Germany's prosperity. While Germany has built a 
wall of tariffs against England, England has thrown the doors to her 
market places wide open. She has shown no hostility to the legend 
"Made in Germany." A commercial nation — and commerce is Eng- 
land's strength — does not go to Avar to overthrow competition, because 
no one knows better than the banker and the merchant and the trader 
that war does not pay. Germany found in the United Kingdom and 
the British dominions and dependencies her richest and most profit- 

16 



able market, and through her own folly Germany has lost a trade she 
can never recover. 

In two weeks after the declaration of war the German merchant 
marine, the pride of the Kaiser's heart, had virtually disappeared from 
the seven seas. German merchant vessels, from the magnificent Im- 
perator and Vaterland down to the disreputable looking tramps, all 
the shipping that so proudly flew the German flag on the Atlantic and 
the Pacific, on the main travelled routes as well as in remote places 
where a cargo is to be picked up or goods made in Germany can fiind 
a purchaser, is either interned in neutral ports or tied up in German 
harbors or condemned as lawful prize by the British courts. 

The German navy, which was the challenge of Germany to Britain 
on the seas, the greatest provocation one nation ever gave to another, 
which the German Emperor fondly imagined would make him as 
supreme on the sea as he imagined he was invincible on land, has 
been compelled to seek the security of its fortified bases. While British 
ships go about their ordinary business, while the great transatlantic 
lines under the British flag are running on their regular schedules, 
while cargoes of foodstuflfs and other commodities are flowing in a 
never ending stream from American ports eastward and the current 
runs undisturbed in the reverse direction and British goods find their 
accustomed markets, Germany is beginning to feel the pinch of hun- 
ger, German industries are prostrate, German commerce is paralyzed. 
It is these things that make Germany so bitter against England. 
They explain why Count von Bernstorff seeks to throw the responsi- 
bility upon England and hopes to gain American sympathy. He 
frankly admits that he is amazed by "the general hostility of the 
American press." The American press — and I think I speak with 
exact knowledge — has not been hostile, but it has been just. It has 
not been partisan, but it has pronounced judgment. On the evidence 
submitted it has rendered decision. Before the great bar of conscience 
the Kaiser has been brought to his assize. History has rendered its 
verdict. Without cause he provoked a war; to gratify ambition he 
sowed desolation. Little children he has made fatherless, and brides 
to mourn their husbands. The tears of the living and the blood of the 
dying drench Europe. His legions have marched, and with them 
have gone ruin, death, horror. He has spared neither young nor old. 
He has spread the torch and with flame and sword devastated city and 
plain. He has made the world a house of mourning; he has stricken 
down the firstborn and brought sorrow to the aged. He has made 
honor a jest and the word of a King a thing of scorn. He has invoked 
the name of God and defiled man made in the image of his Maker. 
Under his iron heel he has crushed civilization and checked its 
progress. 

17 



Knowing the truth, it would be amazing if the American press 
and the American people were able to withhold their sympathy from 
the nations forced by Germany to defend themselves. 

Does Germany Want Peace? 

Since the above was written there have been numerous articles in 
the newspapers intimating that Germany was willing to make peace, and 
the German Ambassador has endeavored to make the American people 
believe that while Germany is ready to end the war, Great Britain and her 
Allies prefer to fight rather than to restore peace to the world and end 
its toll of blood and misery. 

On September 6 Mr. Oscar S. Straus, a member of the Hague Per- 
manent Tribunal of Arbitration, came to Washington and told Secretary 
Bryan he believed that the German Emperor would be willing to con- 
sider terms of peace. Mr. Straus had met Count Bernstorff at a dinner 
in New York, and had been given to understand by him that Germany 
would be glad to have the United States exercise its good ofHices to bring 
hostilities to an end. Mr. Straus asked the consent of the German Am- 
bassador to repeat the conversation to Mr. Bryan, and was permitted 
to do so. 

Mr. Straus saw Mr. Bryan and was authorized by him to call on the 
British and French Ambassadors and ascertain from them the views of 
their Governments. Both Ambassadors informed Mr. Straus that they 
had received no instructions on the subject, but they would communicate 
any proposal made to them. For the benefit of the reader unfamiliar with 
the forms of diplomacy, it should be explained that an Ambassador can- 
not bind his Government without specific instructions, and can only act 
in accordance with the instructions he has received from his Foreign 
Minister. The British and French Ambassadors informed Mr. Straus 
that their Governments desired peace, as they always had, but it must be 
no temporary truce; it must be peace made under such conditions that it 
would be a lasting peace, and Great Britain, France and Russia could 
feel certain they would not again be suddenly attacked. 

Mr. Bryan had in the meantime asked Count Bernstorff to come to 
Washington so that he could ascertain whether he had been authorized 
by the German Emperor to seek the good offices of the United States. 
Count Bernstorff admitted he had received no instructions. His conver- 
sation with Mr. Straus was based on his own belief that the German 
Emperor was not adverse to peace. Mr. Bryan asked Count Bernstorff 
if he had any objection to Mr. Gerard, the American Ambassador to 
Germany, ascertaining whether the German Government would accept 
an offer of mediation made through the United States. To this Count 
Bernstorff assented. 

The British and French Ambassadors at once communicated the sub- 

18 



stance of Mr. Straus' conversation to their respective Governments. Sir 
Edward Grey, tiie British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, speak- 
ing for England as well as her Allies, confirmed in effect what Sir Cecil 
Spring Rice, the British Ambassador, had informally said to Mr. Straus. 
It was that Great Britain desired peace, but it must be a lasting peace. 
If Germany had terms to offer, that would effectually insure peace the 
Allied Powers would receive and consider them. 

Germany having taken the first steps it was incumbent upon her, if 
she was sincere and acting in good faith, to make known the terms she 
proposed. If she was not sincere, if Count Bernstorff, with or without 
instructions, was simply "fishing," hoping to learn that the Allies were 
discouraged and disheartened and would welcome peace at any price, 
the purpose would have been served and the United States would be told 
that Germany had no terms to offer. 

The reader will be able to form his own conclusions as to Count 
Bernstorff's sincerity and the good faith of Germany. 

Mr. Gerard in due course saw the German Imperial Chancellor, who 
had the effrontery — not to use a harsher word — to say that "the United 
States ought to get proposals of peace from the Allies." When Mr. Ger- 
ard's report was made to the President, Mr. Wilson saw that it was 
useless to press the matter further. 

If Germany had been sincere, if in good faith she had wanted peace, 
the Chancellor would not have banged the door in the face of the United 
States. 

It is only necessary to say a few words regarding the present posi- 
tion of Great Britain and her Allies. England desires peace, sincerely 
and ardently she longs for peace, but it must be no sham peace, no mock- 
ery of the word. 

If ever a nation fought the battle of the world, fought for liberty and 
in the cause of righteousness, that nation is England. She is today doing 
what she did a hundred years ago when she rid the world of the menace 
of a military despot and saved Europe from coming under the dominion 
of one man. She stands today the bulwark against militarism and a mili- 
tary oligarchy. She stands today for liberty, freedom of thought and 
action ; the subordination of the sword to the rule of law. She stands 
today the champion of Democracy, the right of man to be "sole sponsor 
of himself." If she is crippled or crushed, the dam that holds back mili- 
tarism is swept away. For many years Europe has been an armed camp. 
Should England cease to be a Great Power all Europe will be divided 
into two parts — Germany and the rest, military satrapies governed by 
an autocrat in Berlin, arrogating to himself the divine right to govern. 

There will no longer be any "little nations," Belgium, Switzerland, 
Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway will be robbed of their nationality 

19 



and independence, their national aspirations, their manner and customs, 
their ideals, their memories of the past, their hopes of the future. They 
will be ground under the iron "heel of Germany, conquered provinces, their 
people valuable only as increasing the power of German military autoc- 
racy, an autocracy that will not be satisfied with having enslaved Europe 
but will seek the conquest of other worlds so that Democracy may perish 
from the face of the earth and absolutism be the creed of kings. 

This war is not of England's seeking. She has been forced into it, 
and having been forced into it she will not relinquish the sword until it 
can be sheathed with safety. Resolutely, with grim determination the 
British Empire is determined there shall be an end of militarism. Too 
long has the world lain under the grievous curse of its armed hosts. Too 
long has the terror of war threatened. Too long has the corruption of 
the sword worked. 

England has not gone into this war with a light heart. There are 
today no light hearts in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, in any place 
where the British flag flies. But whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, 
we must see this thing through, we must save civilization from a return 
to barbarism, from the shame of reverting to the day when justice was 
unknown and only strength was feared. 

Were England to make peace now, to make peace on such terms as 
the German Emperor would only too willingly accept, she would be for- 
ever disgraced and deserve the contempt of all mankind. England has 
taken upon herself a very solemn duty — the preservation of the national 
existence of Belgium against the rapacity of Germany. The most viru- 
lent enemy of England, of France, or Russia has for Belgium only ad- 
miration; profound admiration for her courage, profound pity for the 
ruin and desolution that have moved the compassion of the world. 

Accident involved Belgium. She was the ally of none of the com- 
batants. She was not concerned in the jealousies or intrigues of the 
Powers. She had no revenge to satsify; no long standing debt of hate 
to settle. She offered no provocation. She was peacefully pursuing her 
own affairs, her people happy and prosperous, their safety assured. For 
had not Germany, France and England entered into a treaty to respect 
the neutrality of Belgium? 

The German Emperor had pledged his Kingly word, and he broke 
it with never a thought of shame. The quickest way to strike at the 
heart of France was through Belgium; Belgium must either allow her 
territory to be violated or she would be crushed. When England re- 
monstrated, when England protested against the infraction of the 
treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium, England was told that 
a treaty was merely a scrap of paper. So lightly did the German 
Emperor hold his honor. 

20 



Gallant little Belgium ! To her honor was more than a scrap of 
paper. To her duty was more than the hypocrisy of a phrase. Con- 
fronted with the choice between safety bought at a price that only 
cowards would pay or freedom purchased at a price that might make 
the bravest hesitate, she did not flinch. She would fight. She might 
be conquered, but she would not be a craven. 

Belgium must be protected ; her safety must be assured; she must 
be compensated for the wrongs she has suffered ; her cities must be 
rebuilt; her starving and ruined people must be helped. Only in one 
way can this be done — Germany must be deprived of her power again 
to outrage Belgium; for all the destruction that Germany has done, 
Germany must be made to pay. It would be a farce to rely on Ger- 
man "assurances," to place any faith in a treaty. Germany has shown 
she has no respect for treaties. She laughs at a scrap of paper. All 
that she respects is force; to her force is more to be respected than 
honor. To make peace now would be to hand over Belgium, racked 
and tortured, to the executioner. It would be disgraceful. It would 
be a greater infamy than Germany's infamous crime. 

The present generation is thrilled when it reads of battles and 
great deeds, the warm blood of youth is chilled when, with the ready 
response of youth, it reads of the deadj and dying, the horrors of the 
battlefield, but youth cannot grasp what it means to a nation to be at 
war. It is the men of a former generation who understand. They 
know. They recall those four long, agonizing years, years that tried 
men's souls, that brought out all that was best and bravest in a peo- 
ple, when women with breaking hearts smiled through their tears and 
companioned by death lost not their courage, when men met disaster 
bravely and defeat made them only the more resolute. 

They were fighting for a great cause, and it sustained them. The 
same spirit animates England today. 

I desire to correct the statement that has so often been made in 
the German press and by Germans in high official position that Eng- 
land wants to destroy Germany. Nothing could be farther from our 
thoughts. We have no grudge against Germany ; we English have no 
dislike of the Germans. What we want to destroy is German mili- 
tarism. That is the only destruction we are determined to accomplish. 

Consider for a moment. Does any sensible man ruthlessly de- 
stroy his own property? Is it not only a fool who ruins his best cus- 
tomer? Would it not be the act of a madman to make himself poorer? 
This is the price England will pay were she so foolish to "destroy" 
Germany. Englishmen have millions of pounds invested in German 
enterprises, and German destruction means the loss of those invest- 
ments. Germany was England's best customer, as England was Ger- 

21 



many's best customer, and is it to be supposed that England would 
deliberately destroy her best market? Cannot everyone see that the 
greater the prosperity of Germany, the more Germany buys from Eng- 
land, the more England will sell to Germany? Every ship Germany 
has put on the ocean; every yard of goods Germany has sold in South 
America, in India, in Africa, in England; every machine she has built, 
every pound of dyestuffs, every barrel of cement she has made; every- 
thing that has kept her factories and her people profitably employed has 
been an extension of the world's commerce, has added to the wealth of the 
world, has made it possible for more people to buy the things that 
England manufactures, has made England richer. 

What can England make out of this war? Nothing, absolutely 
nothing. England's land hunger has long been satisfied, she has cast 
no covetous eyes on German colonies. Were Germany to pay an in- 
demnity so huge that it w^ould virtually reduce her to slavery, the 
millions would not compensate England for all that the war will cost 
her, for the loss of life, for the misery of women, for the tears of the 
fatherless, for the dislocation of commerce, for the impoverishment 
of the whole world. And when the world is poor England, because of 
her industrial and financial position, is the chief sufferer. 

The German people do not believe that England seeks their de- 
struction, but German militarism must justify itself. Callous as the 
ruling class of Germany has always been to the opinion of the world, 
in this emergency, knowing it stands condemned, it craves the sup- 
port of the United States, and in defense attributes to England base 
motives. 

We have put on our armor. We shall carry it through the heat of 
the day. Its burden is heavy, but we shall not take it off until men 
again breathe free, no longer affrighted by the terror of war. 

When that day comes we shall make peace. 



22 



(Reprinted by permission of The Outlook.) 

Germany Interpreted by a German American 

The following article comes to us from the pen of an American citizen 
of German parentage. An alumnus of a well-knozvn Eastern preparatory 
school and a distinguished graduate of Harvard University, the writer is 
as truly American in his sympathy and understanding as any editor of 
The Outlook. He is a man of large imagination and spiritual compre- 
hension. His interpretation of the attitute of the rest of Europe toward 
Germany is one, zve think, zvhich will interest our readers as much as it 
has interested the staff of The Outlook. This partially humorous yet 
wholly serious article will explain to our readers many of the causes for 
the acknowledged unpopularity of Germany among its neighbor nations. 
His explanation is illuminating, the more so since it comes from one who 
is German by descent and German in his sympathies. Nevertheless, The 
Outlook still maintains that Hre and steel are not the means wherewith 
to make old foes into new friends. — The Editors. 

There are causes and causes behind the great war that is going on in 
Europe at this moment, and the catch-phrases the diplomatists toss hither 
and back — Slavic peril, Teuton arrogance, English greed — do not tell the 
whole story. Nor is it entirely safe to raise one's hand in holy horror to 
the awful effects of monarchism and to blame unreservedly the Kaiser 
for the cataclysm. There are causes less obvious, but no less real and 
scarcely less important. 

One of these is the German's resentment against the unfriendly atti- 
tufde his fellow-Europeans have held toward him for decades ; an attitude 
originating in a feeling of social superiority and exhibiting itself in sus- 
picion and mistrust. This attitude is prevalent in Europe. I am in- 
formed that it is not unknown in Asia. I know by personal experience 
that even here in America — years ago, perhaps, more than to-day — it 
has in its lighter phases been widespread. I myself was brought up in 
this country; and I shall not forget the scorn that was visited upon me 
because I was a "Dutchman" by blood. Like the Teuton that I was, I 
took those attacks very seriously and tried to explain, quite without com- 
prehension of the comic values of the situation, that I was German and 
not Dutch. That made matters rather worse. I had friends of my own 
nationality, and I heard them scoffingly referred to as Dutchmen. I 
heard the butcher and grocer also called Dutchmen in a tone of voice 
mean*-, to reproach. We were all lumped together, fair game for all. I 
tried to forget all I knew of the German language, because it seemed to 
me to have some sort of shame connected with it; and only the heroic 
endeavors of my father and mother balked me in this. As I grew older 
and less obviously German in manner and mode of thought, I heard less 

23 



of the taunt Dutchman, but became aware with a shock that a great many 
estimable people considered the German, on the whole, inferior socially 
to the Anglo-Saxon or Latin of the same group. It puzzled me, for in- 
stance, that a very noble-spirited friend of mine, an American of Ger- 
man parentage like myself, should have been shown the door by the 
father of his lady-love for no reason other than that he was a German. 
The father confessed to having a violent antipathy to Germans. It puz- 
zled me also that friends of my own, New Englanders of great charm 
and culture, should speak to Germans in general with a sweeping con- 
tempt that was almost disgust. I went abroad. The French, I found, 
detested the Germans of course — remembering Sedan and a few other 
things, perhaps they had good reason ; but the Italians disliked them also. 
The Germans had a way, it seemed, of invading a perfectly good land- 
scape and spoiling it to the Italian eye. I met a physician and his wife 
who looked, acted, and spoke English like Germans, and I took it for 
granted that they were. But I was told indignantly that they were noth- 
ing of the kind. They were Dutch ; and I was swiftly made aware of 
the fact that I had been disagreeable. I made the same mistake with an 
Austrian, and the Austrian, too, set me straight without mincing words. 
In Europe, as in America, I found that the people of other nations do not 
consider it quite good form to be a German. You may be an Italian or 
a Portuguese with impunity, but there is something a little off color in 
being a German. I resented this, and I believe that others of German 
blood have resented it before and since. 

There are, of course, potent though superficial reasons for this gen- 
eral dislike of the German. The average German, whom the foreigner 
sees, is aggressive, self-assertive, loud in his manner and talk, inconsid- 
erate, petty, pompous, dictatorial, without humor; in a word, bumptious. 
He has, in many cases exceedingly bad table manners and an almost gross 
enjoyment of his food ; and he talks about his ailments and his underwear. 
His attitude toward women, moreover, is likely to be over-gallant if he 
knows them a little and not too well, and discourteous or even insolent if 
he is married to them or does not know them at all. He is at his worst 
at the time when he is most on exhibition, when he is on this travels or 
helping other people to travel, as ticket-chopper or custom official. The 
average European, other than German, coming in contact, sometimes 
rather violently, with the German I have described, jumps to the conclu- 
sion that the bumptiousness and the occasional coarseness are the whole 
man, when they are actually only the veneer. Your scoffer, be he French, 
English, Italian, or American, does not as a rule, have time to discover 
the calm-headedness behind the quick-tempered exterior, the incorrupt- 
ible integrity, the loyalty to family, to a cause, or to an ideal, the tender- 
heartedness, the fine sentiment, the artistic sensibility. The foreigner 



sees the bad manners, and declares that the German is a boor and not to 
be reckoned among gentlemen. 

The German has felt, not the contempt perhaps, but the suspicious- 
ness, engendered by the misunderstanding. He has felt quite rightly 
that he has no friends beyond his borders. He has secured his place in 
the sun for himself, he has traded with the ends of the earth ; but he has 
made no friends. He does not understand why this should be so; he 
himself is unconscious of the superficial faults which seem to be so an- 
noying to others. He certainly does not realize that foreigners raise 
their eyebrows at the way he devours his meals. All that he knows is 
that he has no friends over the border, that his every move is watched 
with envy and mistrust, and that there is no one to take his part. The 
German has ever been honest and industrious, seeking to make his way 
by peaceful means ; and he has been galled beyond endurance by an opposi- 
tion which he did not guess was based largely on a flippant contempt for 
his table manners. 

This conviction of his isolation among the peoples of Europe, gained 
from travel or business association, achieves in the eyes of the German 
possibly greater significance than it deserves because it appears as a cor- 
roboration of what he has learned at school. It is a frequently repeated 
fact that Germany is geographically so situated that she must look con- 
stantly to her own protection. She must have an army. To 
have an army she must stir up patriotism in the people. And 
so the German is taught (much as the American boy is taught 
that the British were all very, very bad in the Revolution and the Amer- 
icans were all very, very noble and good) that the Russian is a wolf on 
the east and the Frenchman a fox on the west ; and God knows the bug- 
bear "perfidious Albion" is made out to be ! From his earliest childhood 
the German is thus taught that he is surrounded by enemies. I remem- 
ber once arguing at a dinner-table on the bank of the Rhine that there 
really did not seem to be great usefulness in keeping alive the old anger 
against the French. "Oh!" cried a dear lady of sixty-odd, flushed with 
indignation; "but the French are our natural enemies!" 

This war, then, is, I believe, not the cold piece of diplomatic jobbery 
on the part of the Kaiser and his advisers that the American papers 
assert it to be. The discrimination, therefore, between the German Gov- 
ernment and the German people which the New York "Evening Post," 
for instance, has made in an editorial entirely sympathetic with the aims 
and ideals of the latter does not seem to me quite valid. The Kaiser, more- 
over, is not quite as mediaaeval as he sounds. During the succession of war 
scares which the past decade has produced he has had the opportunity of 
finding out whether or not his people stood behind him. I was in Ger- 
many during the crisis in August, 1911. My brothers and cousins who 

25 



were in the German army and navy had their marching orders in their 
pockets. None of them wanted to go to war, but all felt that war was 
inevitable sooner or later. A civilian with whom I discussed the situation, 
a man who happened to be a member of the Prussian Landtag, was bitter 
against the Kaiser, not at all because he thought the Kaiser was rushing 
into war, but, on the contrary, because he seemed to the speaker to be 
ruining Germany's prestige right and left 'by swallowing insult after 
insult from France and England. I found this point of view supported 
on many sides. The feeling against France and England was so intense 
that I felt it must be absurdly, blindly unjust. I went to England shortly 
after, with my sympathies, on the whole, inclining toward the English 
side. Three little incidents in quick succession showed me that the feel- 
ing of the Germans that England was bitterly hostile to them was not 
without foundation. In a street in Kensington I heard one laborer wha 
was passing say bitterly to another : "I hope we go an' wring the bloom- 
in' livers out o' the damned Dutchman!" A few days later a German 
merchant who had lived and worked in London for forty years took me 
through his club in the city. "We Germans are not very popular is this 
club," he said. "If things get any worse between the nations, I shall 
have to resign. The English resent the acceleration of business methods 
which Germans have made necessary by their competition. The English 
like to do business leisurely. But the efficiency of the German traders 
the world over has forced them to realize that they must either bestir 
themselves mightily or drop hopelessly behind." This attitude is not in- 
consistent with what other nations have discovered concerning the Eng- 
lish. They are, on the whole, not very good sportsmen. 

The third incident happened at a dinner party at Queen's Gate. I 
had happened to mention that I thought it too bad that the Germans 
allowed themselves to work up such a war scare about England. In his 
reply my host did not let the fact that I was German by blood interfere 
in the least with the expression of his views. With flushed face and bitter 
words, he blamed all his troubles and all the troubles of England on 
Germany, and especially on Germany's navy. He could not see at all that 
Germany had a right to build ships for her own protection and for the 
protection of her growing colonies. His bitterness was that of the man 
who sees himself being beaten in a fair game and is losing his nerve. 

Politically, Germany was isolated by Edward VII, but socially the Ger- 
man people have always been isolated. And the furor teutonicus, to 
which Dr. Ernst Richard refers in a recent number of The Outlook, is 
aflame in them now, rightly or wrongly, because they feel that they are 
fighting men who wish them ill, and fighting for their existence. "Though 
devils should rise against us on all sides," cried the Imperial Chancellor 
in a recent speech, "still we should fight to the end !" That is the feeling 

26 



of the German: "There are devils on all sides. Sooner or later they 
must be downed. To-day is as good as to-morrow. Rather better in 
fact. So to-day be it !" 

The Dutchman's back is against the wall, just as it used to be in my 
boyhood days in Brooklyn years ago in snow-time when the taunting 
Anglo-Saxons were after him. 



27 



The Vice Regent of God and His Chosen People 

By William H. Skaggs. 

"One American's Strong Opinion. 

Address delivered in the Press Club by William H. Skaggs." 

(Amplified and reprinted in response to requests.) 

William H. Skaggs, who addressed us last Wednesday, and whose 
rather forcible speech is reported verbatim in these pages, was the first 
native born American to appear in the course of war talks now going on. 
Whether he voiced the sentiment prevailing among Americans or merely 
his own is not for the Club to say. But it can say Mr. Skaggs knew his 
own mind and delivered it with engaging frankness. 

He was born in Talladega, Alabama, and has given much of his time 
to newspaper and magazine work. He is a lecturer of high repute, and 
an earnest politician. — The Scoop. 

A cataclysm has come in the history of civilization and the extended 
sweep of this violent disturbance has shaken the foundations of Christen- 
dom. We can not be indifferent to the consequences of this disaster, nor 
should we fail to heed the warning of a life and death struggle be- 
tween absolutism and democracy. I believe I am free of race prejudice, 
so far as any phase of the present conflict is concerned, but my bring- 
ing up and environments have made me intensely American. This 
war involves fundamental issues vital to the American people, and we 
shall not be able to escape its influence on our national life. It is a crisis 
that calls for intense feeling, not only in our sympathy for the peoples 
involved, but also in our deep concern for what may happen to us. 

The present world-wide war has unfolded a state of public opinion 
which can not be ignored. Enlightened public opinion in this country, 
when associated with virile appreciation of democratic principles, is in 
sympathy with the Allies. We have no prejudice against the German 
people, who are far advanced in education, industrial development and 
commercial expansion; but their present civilization is essentially ma- 
terial and, from our point of view, it is lacking in that ethical culture 
which develops a proper appreciation of the higher ideals of American 
institutions. 

We have in this country good people from every civilized race and 
nation of the world. Our country has been a cave of Adullam for the 
poor and oppressed of all races. Among other good citizens of foreign 
birth, we have many able, worthy and useful men and women from Ger- 
many. We have no prejudice against these citizens of German lineage, 
but we can not be good Americans and remain silent in the face of this 
appalling crisis. The neutrality of this nation need not suppress the 
noblest impulses of its citizens. Our president has wisely and properly 

28 



proclaimed the neutrality of this nation, and in this policy he has the sup- 
port of the people; he has, also, with equal discretion and propriety, 
received a commission from one of the belligerents. 

Immediately following presentation of the Belgian Commission at 
the White House, Mr. Brand, of Chicago, publisher of the Staats-Zeitung, 
appeared in Washington for the purpose of presenting to the president a 
petition signed by German-American citizens of Wisconsin, lUinois and 
Indiana. The president decided not to receive Mr. Brand, his delegation 
and petition. The president was right, and all good Americans, regard- 
less of party affiliation, will sustain him. At the beginning of this war. 
President Wilson expressed his opinion of hyphenated Americans, and he 
has been sincere and delicately diplomatic in his neutrality. President 
Wilson was a historian before he was a publicist, and his scholarly attain- 
ments have fitted him for a very responsible position in the present inter- 
national crisis. One need not be a constituent of the president in order to 
give him full credit for his wise and patriotic policy under a delicate 
situation in our foreign relations. 

"This war is no accident, but an inevitable result of long incuba- 
tion ; inevitable as the cataclysms that sweep away the monstrous 
births of primeval nature." It is a mighty convulsion in political 
and social science, a struggle between medievalism and modern civil- 
ization ; in the end, civilization, with its modern concept of higher 
social and political ideals, will triumph. This is not a race war. An 
attempt to becloud the issue by alleging probable danger of the 
"Slavic Peril" in Europe and the "Yellow Peril" in this country has 
misled nobody of ordinary intelligence. 

German deeds belie German words. Moreover, there have been 
so many conflicting and contradictory statements from high authori- 
ties, the world has no confidence in any statements made by the 
German government touching its purposes and policies. At the 
beginning of this war, the Imperial German Chancellor stated that 
their troops had advanced into Belgian territory and "the injustice 
that we thereby committed we shall rectify as soon as our military 
object is achieved." The German Emperor now declares that, "Bel- 
gium, which interfered with our attack, has been added to the glo- 
rious provinces of Germany." The Machiavellian policies of Bis- 
marck are well represented by the Imperial Chancellor; the brig- 
andage of Frederick the Great has again added to the "glorious 
provinces of Germany." The vandalism of Attila and the craftiness 
of Metternich continue to shape the destinies of the German peoples. 

All of this talk about the so-called "Slavic Peril" presumes upon 
the ignorance of those to whom the plea is made; it is the same old 
German subterfuge. "It is easy for princes, under various specious 
pretenses, to defend, disguise and conceal their ambitious desires." 



Every branch of the Slavic race is well represented in this country 
and, in the present crisis, they have demeaned themselves peaceably, 
with a quiet dignity and unselfish patriotism which has won the 
respect of the American people. Those who could return to their 
fatherland have gone back to fight for it ; those who could not return 
have remained here and gone about their business, doing what they 
could to help the needy and unfortunate in their native country. 
Unlike the German-Americans, they have not found it necessary to 
make public demonstrations, or to annoy their neighbors with a 
spectacular display of hyphenated patriotism and vulgar bombast. 

In the early history of our struggles for national existence, the 
capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga was one of the most important 
victories won by the American revolutionists, and it was the strategic 
work of a Polish patriot. The fortifications at West Point were 
constructed under the direction of this Polish patriot and our colonial 
fathers were not much perturbed about the "Slavic Peril" when this 
Polish officer of "courage, modesty and sound judgment" was made 
adjutant to General Washington. We are told by Bancroft, "among 
his latest official acts, Washington interceded with congress on be- 
half of Kosciusko, pleading for him 'his merit and services from the 
concurrent testimony of all who knew him' ; and congress accordingly 
granted to the Polish exile, who was to become dear to many nations, 
the brevet commission of brigadier-general." 

The Servians, or Serbs, and all European branches of the Slavic 
race, have been intensely patriotic and made their place in the his- 
tory of civilization by defending their homes and their government. 
For many generations, they have stood on the eastern frontiers of 
Europe, defending western civilization against the inroads of the 
Turks. While the petty states of Germany held their subjects in 
serfdom, engaged in barbaric and fratricidal strife among themselves, 
pliant tools of the Holy Roman Empire, the Slavic races of the 
Balkan States were bravely serving on the outposts of civilization. 
Sobieski, Kosciusko, and Kossuth have brighter and more memorable 
places in history than Bahrdt, Metternich and Nietzsche. Tolstoy 
was worth more to civilization and the cause of humanity than Bern- 
hardi, and he will be remembered long after Bernhardi has been 
forgotten. 

The racial history of the Slavic races in the Balkan States can 
be traced for fifteen hundred years. These people established great 
empires. In the language of Prof. Hart, "The first people who wrote 
about the Germans found them anything but unified. Their chief 
pursuits seemed to be drinking mead and fighting their neighbors ; 
or, if there were no neighbors handy, fighting each other. The first 
unifying principle came from without." The first "conception of one 

30 



king for the Germans, who should at the same time be Emperor of 
the world," came with Charlemagne, the great king of the Franks. 
German history began about the year 840, when the vast empire of 
Charles the Great was divided into three parts. 

The Slavic races are not barbarians, although they are first 
cousins to the Germans, who have Tartar blood in their veins. The 
Huns were Tartars, and after they overran central Europe, little is 
heard of them after the death of Attila. They were defeated by the 
Franks on the border-land of the Germans and then "assimilated 
themselves to the populations of their environments." They were ab- 
sorbed by the Germans, hence the evidence of the Tartar spirit in the 
philosophy of the German rationalist and militarist and the policies of 
German rulers. This tainted blood of the German rulers has been 
observed not only in the Hohenzollern dynasty but also in other ruling 
families of the German states who have intermarried with reigning 
families of other nations. German kings of England, the Hanover 
dynasty, prior to the reign of Victoria, were reactionary and cor- 
rupt. Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was a German and a 
very remarkable woman, one of the greatest rulers of modern times 
and one of the most immoral and infamous. She was a friend of 
Voltaire and cultivated French thinkers. The physical and moral 
degeneracy of German rulers has brought untold trouble and suffer- 
ing on Europe. The present German Emperor talks like a madman. 
Bismarck taught him to hate England and everything English, in- 
cluding his mother. He is the most arrogant, blatant and vicious 
sovereign the world has known for many years. Of very ordinary 
attainments, if he were not ruler of a great empire, he would be re- 
garded as a very bumptious, commonplace charlatan. 

It was the Slavic stock that saved Germany from Ottoman con- 
quest and it is the Slavic stock which has now joined with England 
to save Belgium and France from German conquest. When the 
Turks conquered Hungary and besieged Vienna they were finally 
repulsed by the Slavic race. "It was the Serb Bakich who saved 
Vienna, says a Hungarian historian." Sobieski, John HI, with 20,000 
Polish troops, saved Vienna and prevented the Ottomans from ravag- 
ing central Europe. The Turkish forces were overwhelmingly de- 
feated and driven back. Sobieski was the hero of Christendom and 
he was one of the greatest warriors and statesmen of his age. He was 
received by acclaim by the Viennese, but Emperor Leopold showed 
strange in gratitude in his treatment of the deliverer and of the Polish 
army. Ingratitude has been one of the prominent features of the 
Hapsburg family record. It is one of the ironies of history that the 
Turks, who were driven back from central Europe by the Slavic 

31 



races, should now be the protege and ally of the Austrians and Ger- 
mans who were saved from the Turks by the Slavs. Servia is fight- 
ing for national existence and Turkey has joined with Austria and 
Germany to destroy the people who saved Europe three hundred 
years ago. 

Race prejudice is neither provincial nor modern, but it is supposed 
to soften as civilization advances. It is true that race prejudice and 
religious persecution grow less obstinate as we advance in humane or 
spiritual development. These racial and religious prejudices are more 
easily aroused when nations are at war and society is disturbed by the 
most brutal passions of man. For the purpose of hiding their own 
sins and exposing the more highly civilized peoples to every possible 
danger, the Germans have tried to frighten Europe with the cry of 
"Slavic Peril" and to alarm this country with the cry of "Yellow 
Peril." The habit of calling the Slavic races "Asiatic barbarians" has 
a sinister purpose. The Slavs are a European race and have for cen- 
turies been fighting the Tartars with whom Germany has made an 
offensive alliance. If we may judge a nation by words and deeds of 
their rulers, civilization and human freedom are in more danger from 
the German peril than the "Yellow Peril." 

From the address of Prof. Cho-Yo, before the Press Club, I quote 
the following: "What is the meaning of civilization, the word so much 
used from time immemorial. According to the most ancient thinkers, 
men of wisdom put the moral or ethical or humanitarian principle as 
the strongest and fundamental basis of governing a community and 
the people to be governed. China has been rich in writings, books, 
poems and art during 4,500 years. Far backward in point of the war- 
fare weapons — not in the science of war." Again, from this learned 
Japanese I quote the following significant statement: "The violation 
of the Belgian neutrality perfectly justifies what Japan has been con- 
sidering that Germany would be the first to try to disintegrate China. 

The ultimatum sent to Germany in regard to Kiauchao was in 
wording, except the proper names, exactly the same as Germany sent 
to Japan after the Chinese-Japanese war. The treaty of peace then 
signed was a great international joke." 

Authentic history of Japan begins A. D. 552, when the Buddhist 
missionaries arrived from Korea, who brought with them "letters, writ- 
ing, calendars and methods of keeping time." At this period of the 
world's history the Germanic tribes were assimilating the Huns and rav- 
aging Rome. German history did not begin until more than three hun- 
dred years after Buddhist missionaries were welcomed in Japan "with 
their letters and writings." Two hundred years before Charles the 
Great undertook to unify the Germans, Kotoku was Emperor of Japan 

32 



and "he was of gentle disposition; loved men of learning; made no dis- 
tinction of noble and mean, and continually dispensed beneficent edicts." 

By way of comparison, consider these evidences of German culture as 
expressed by Bernhardi : 

"The state is justified in making conquests whenever its own ad- 
vantage seems to require additional territory." 

"In fact, the state is a law unto itself. Weak nations have not the 
same right to live as powerful and vigorous nations." 

It is of little moment whether we judge Germany by her history 
or by her words and deeds of the present generation; the sum and sub- 
stance of it all is the argument Thrasymachus, the Sophist, in Plato's 
Republic, that justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger, 
in other words, that might is right. If we compare Japan's record in 
the war with Russia, with Germany's record in the present war, we shall 
readily see how vastly superior the Japanese are in all that distinguishes 
a highly civilized people from an uncivilized people. 

The power of absolutism in Germany has been very frankly stated 
by Prince Bulow, late Chancellor of the German Empire: "I must lay 
down most emphatically that the prerogative of the Emperor's personal 
initiative must not be curtailed, and will not be curtailed by any Chan- 
cellor." Or, again, danger of the Tartar Peril may be found in the 
declaration of the German Kaiser : "Only one is master of this country. 
That is I. Who opposes me, I shall crush to pieces. . . . Sic volo, sic 
jubeo. . . . We Hohenzollerns take our crown from God alone, and 
to God alone we are responsible in the fulfilment of duty. Suprema lex 
regis voluntas." 

The military object of Germany's invasion of Belgium has been 
"achieved" and Germany's national obligation has been thrown away as 
"a scrap of paper." Belgium has preserved her honor and safeguarded 
her long established character for courage and patriotism. Germany has 
temporarily triumphed and the brave Belgians have paid the penalty of 
their unfortunate position beside an assassin, but there will come a day of 
reckoning when this cruel war is over. Belgium will live again, honored 
and respected, the world will ask when shall such heroes live again, and 
the name of Belgium will be the synonym of truth and virtue and honor 
in all parts of the world. History will measure the responsibility for all 
the suffering, and sorrow, and humiliation of Belgium and on the es- 
cutcheon of Germany there will be a bar sinister which neither the Krupp 
guns nor the materialism of Nietzsche will be able to eflface. The in- 
defensible attack on Servia has added to the infamous record of the 
Hapsburgs, the cowardly and inhuman invasion of Belgium has added to 
the infamous record of the Hohenzollerns and the world is restless await- 
ing the destruction of these monstrous dynasties. 

The invasion of Belgium, we are told, was a military necessity, for no 

33 



cause except expediency of war, and since Belgium has been occupied the 
world is given to understand that it will be a part of German territory, 
if Germany be able to hold it. Indeed, the Kaiser now advises his "dear, 
faithful soldiers" that "Belgium has been added to the glorious provinces 
of Germany." The elder Pitt said, "necessity was the argument of 
tyrants, it was the creed of slaves." 

The inhumanity and aggressiveness of Germany's militarism is 
equaled only by the insolence and stupidity of her diplomacy. At the close 
of the war between China and Japan, Germany interfered with Japan in 
the most brutal manner, sending to Japan the most insolent message that 
one sovereign nation ever sent to another. A German officer who accom- 
panied the Japanese army, by special courtesy of Japan, secretly reported 
to his government the movements of the Japanese army. This incident 
illustrates the extent of German espionage and the standard of German 
honor. 

German nationalism is new and unification is not well suited to the 
customs and ideals of people who have so recently emerged from tribal 
communities in a state of serfdom. At the close of the Napoleonic period, 
there were 39 governmental units, including four independent city states. 
A German National Parliament was held in 1848 for the purpose of form- 
ing a general German constitution, but the undertaking miscarried. About 
the same time, a Pan-Slavic Congress was held at Prague for the purpose 
of bringing together the various Slav elements in the Austrian Empire in 
opposition to the Germans. 

No progress was made in the direction of German unification until 
after the defeat of the Austrians at Solferino. Austrian prestige with 
Prussia vanished at Solferino and King William inaugurated the first con- 
structive movement for the unification of Germany when, by disregarding, 
for the time being, the Hohenzollern doctrine of divine right, he called 
Bismarck to his support. Bismarck's masterful mind fathomed the situa- 
tion and his constructive ability and iron will moulded Germany into a 
union which was greatly strengthened by the short war with Austria, in 
1866, when Prussia, with superior arms and the superior strategy of 
General von Moltke, not only defeated Austria, but also whipped Saxony, 
Hanover, Bavaria, Wurtemburg and Hesse into line and made them a part 
of the new North German Confederation. This new confederation was 
formed in 1867 and a constitution, modeled somewhat after the U. S. 
constitution, was made. Universal suffrage was established after the 
elective system of the United States. The present constitution was made 
in 1871. It is a written instrument and the empire created by this consti- 
tution consists of four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven 
principalities, three free cities and one territory ; all under the presidency 
of the King of Prussia, who bears the title of German Emperor. It is not 
a union of equals; certain members enjoy specific privileges which do not 

34 



belong to others. Prussia has the hereditary right to the presidency of the 
union, and her representation in the Federal Council is large enough to 
prevent changes in the constitution without her consent and she has the 
casting vote in case of a tie. 

German unification was not complete until after the war with France. 
Realizing the weakness of Napoleon III, Bismarck grasped the moment 
of opportunity for a more perfect unification and greater expansion of the 
new German confederation. The suggestion of a Hohenzollern prince 
for the Spanish throne irritated France and Bismarck found the psycho- 
logical moment for his intrigue and cunning. He falsified a report of the 
alleged insult by the French Ambassador and war was declared with 
France, the remaining German states were forced into the war, Alsace and 
Lorraine were annexed, and the unification was completed when King 
William of Prussia was declared German Emperor in the great hall of the 
palace at Versailles. The Holy Roman Empire was never so powerful as 
the German Empire. The work was well done. It was the work of a 
master mind, such as Germany had not produced before and has not pro- 
duced since ; it was the work of a blood and iron policy, a magnificent but 
brutal beginning of militarism, absolutism and conquest, the termination 
of which, in the present struggle of democracy and humanity against 
despotism and materialism, has appalled the civilized world. 

The internal struggles of Germany began shortly after unification, 
but the agricultural class, the old Germany, the polite and respectable 
Germany, was soon smothered by the industrialism, materialism, mili- 
tarism and coarseness of Prussia. Germany was swallowed up by Prussia, 
whose king became the German Emperor and whose votes amount to a veto 
on all measures which the military class and the Prussian dynasty do not 
approve. 

German efficiency has been shown in her military organization and 
administration, in municipal administration and sanitary regulation. Police 
powers of a state can always be administered more efficiently under mili- 
tary direction. For safe-guarding the health of a community, in times of 
epidemics, and maintaining order in times of lawless disturbances, we 
sometimes find it necessary to support the police regulations with the 
military. The established militarism of Germany afifords these permanent 
advantages in municipal regulations, hence Germany has clean, healthful 
and well ordered cities. 

Industrialism has made wonderful progress in Germany during the 
present generation, so have materialism and militarism; education has 
made wonderful progress, illiteracy has been reduced to the minimum, but 
absolutism has made greater progress and idealism and all things spiritual 
have been reduced to a minimum. The higher and better impulses of the 
human heart have been subordinated to things practical and materialism 
has eaten the heart out of Germany. To modern Germany idealism or 

35 



humanity is a stumbling block; personal liberty or democracy is foolish- 
ness. Conquest and commerce are greater than love and honor. They 
occupy a low plane in civilization and their horizon is limited. If they 
would profit by the lessons of history, they should recall that Carthage 
was the greatest city of antiquity and the Phenicians had the most ex- 
tensive commerce of antiquity. There is nothing left in art, literature or 
government to tell the story of the Phenician colonies; Grecian art and 
literature have endured. There is not a civilized country in the world 
which has not felt the refining influence of Grecian art and literature, and 
there is hardly one that has not been influenced by Grecian philosophy 
and democracy. From their earliest history, the Greeks have been devoted 
to constitutional government and popular rights, centuries of subjection to 
the Turks could not destroy their ideals and patriotism, and the late social 
and political renaissance of Greece has won the admiration of the world. 

History teaches us that the greatness of a nation is not in its popula- 
tion, the extent of its territory, its wealth, nor its military power. "Great- 
ness is of the soul, not of the body" ; it is the spiritual life, not the evidence 
of things material. There is such a thing as national conscience and the 
ethics and humanity of a nation are full of potentialities in its political and 
industrial life. There is no administrative machinery, no courts for en- 
forcing the law of nations, and, until we make further progress in the 
federation of nations, we must rely upon the fundamental principles of 
justice and honor, supported by enlightened public opinion. The injustice, 
and inhumanity, and the lawless cupidity of individuals frequently escape 
punishment by the courts, but the condemnation of public opinion is fre- 
quently more effective as punitive justice, and a more wholesome deter- 
rent, than rigid enforcement of the written law. And history teaches us 
that nations also are frequently and severely punished by this moral force 
of public opinion ; there is such a thing as retributive justice in the un- 
written law of nations. The highest evidence of the moral progress of a 
nation, and the cultured standard of its peoples, is found not only in a 
keen regard for its treaty obligations, but also in an equal regard for 
human rights and justice. 

The Monroe Doctrine was promulgated not only for our own protec- 
tion, but more directly for the protection and preservation of the new 
South American states. Our liberal treatment of Spain in the Treaty of 
Paris ; our conduct towards Cuba ; our liberal treatment of China in the 
matter of the Boxer troubles, and our policy with Mexico are evidences 
of our national conscience. Japan's liberal treatment of Russia and her 
high regard for her treaty obligations, her dignified conduct since she de- 
feated Russia, have won the confidence and respect of the world. Russia 
was deeply humiliated and seriously checked in her plans for territorial 
expansion; Japan was exhilarated, greatly extended her commerce and 
acquired large territory, but her success did not make her inhuman and 

86 



insolent. If the policy of Japan since the war with Russia may be taken 
as evidence of the "Yellow Peril," it is a pity that this peril did not infect 
Germany. Had the Japanese peril gotten into the head and heart of 
Germany immediately following the war with France, forty-four years 
ago, it would have been better for the peace of the world, the cause of 
civilization and the honor of Germany. It has been forty-four years since 
France was humiliated and plundered by Germany and Germany's bitter- 
ness and enmity towards the victim of her intrigue and insatiable rapacity 
has not abated. It has been only ten years since Japan and Russia were at 
war; today there is no apparent bitterness between these two powers and 
they are the common allies of the two most advanced nations of the world. 
Our war with Spain deprived that proud nation of its richest possessions, 
but there is no bitterness or enmity between Spain and the United States. 
German writers sneer at us and say our policy with Cuba, China and Mejc- 
ico has been weak ; in the judgment of other civilized people, our policies 
in these matters have evidenced a national consciousness which has ex- 
alted us in world position. 

England has many sins to answer for. Like every other nation. Great 
Britain has not always shown a scrupulous regard for her obligations and 
her greed has sometimes led her too far, but she stands before the world 
today with the oldest and most honorable record as the defender of human 
rights, the champion of national ethics and the conservator of democracy 
and civilization. It has been England's national virtue and England's 
greatness, more than England's commercial supremacy, that has aroused 
the hatred of Germany. We have read, when a clownish fellow ap- 
proached Aristides, not knowing him, asked that his name be written on 
the sherd of ostracism, Aristides was surprised and asked if he had ever 
done him any injury. "None at all," said he, "neither know I the man; 
but I am tired of hearing him everywhere called the just." And we liave 
been told that the devil hates holy water, simply because it is holy. Eng- 
land has other rivals for the world's trade. America has been a very 
formidable rival, and there have been many delicate and grave questions, 
involving our trade relations, which we have been called upon to settle with 
England. Sometimes we have thought she was grasping and unreasonable, 
but for more than one hundred years, we have been able to find a peaceable 
and honorable settlement of all our difficulties. 

We have been told that Germany is jealous of England's naval su- 
premacy, but we know that England's naval supremacy existed before 
Germany had emerged from the limitations of her tribal communities, 
long before the German people dreamed they were capable of maintaining 
a navy. France and America are more exposed to attack from the sea 
than Germany, but neither of these countries has gone into a state of 
hysteria about the growth of England's navy. Another ridiculous and 
tmdignified position taken by Germany is that England is jealous of Ger- 

37 



many's trade expansion. There has been no more occasion for England's 
being jealous of German trade than American trade, and England has put 
no more stumbling blocks in the way of German trade than she has put in 
the way of American trade. America and France have been in active com- 
petition with England in the South American trade and with English 
colonies. Since the beginning of the present war, the United States has 
been "looking around pretty smartly," doing "her level best" to pick up all 
the trade she can find. Systematic work has been undertaken by our 
merchants and manufacturers to secure a large portion of the South 
American trade which has been wholly lost to Germany and temporarily 
and partly lost to England and France. We anticipate no war as a result 
of our merchants and manufacturers seeking new fields for trade, and we 
have not heard that their efiforts have aroused any bitterness in France 
or England. 

England has not discriminated against German trade; she has made 
no eflfort to retard German industrial progress or handicap German trade. 
In the words of A. Maurice Low, "While Germany has built a wall of 
tariffs against England, England has thrown the doors to her market 
places wide open. . . . Germany found in the United Kingdom and the 
British dominions and dependencies her richest and most profitable mar- 
kets, and through her own folly Germany has lost a trade she can never 
recover." 

Germany's alarm about English trade rivalry was founded on the 
general moral, law that a dishonest man hates an honest man. While 
Germany has been able to compete with England in many lines she has 
not been able to destroy confidence in English wares and English integrity. 
Germany's methods do not inspire permanent confidence. The trade situ- 
ation as between the two countries has been clearly stated by Prof. Roland 
G. Usher, Professor of History, Washington University : "No small part 
of England's success in international trade has been the ability of the Eng- 
lish manufacturers to maintain a standard that is almost unvarying. The 
English products which bear the great names have been the same for gen- 
erations, and the proprietors have never yielded to the temptation to de- 
base the product to increase the profit. They have sought to increase profit 
by the extension of operations and the increased volume of sales. . . . 
Merchants in the far-off quarters of the world know exactly what they 
are ordering and exactly what it will be like when they receive it, and 
they are never disappointed." 

F. von Bernhardi writes of "the great tasks of the present and 
future which Providence has set before the German people as the 
greatest civilized people known to history." The arrogance of the 
German writers is something unspeakable. Bernhardi fails to tell just 
what these great tasks are which Providence has set before His chosen 
people, but if we consult another German authority we shall learn 

38 



more about the elect people and their tasks. The Outlook of Aug. 22nd. 
publishes a very interesting article under the title of "Germany In- 
terpreted by a German-American." Referring to this article, the 
Editors of The Outlook say : "The following article comes to us from 
the pen of an American citizen of German parentage. An alumnus of 
a well-known eastern preparatory school and a distinguished graduate 
of Harvard University." Among other frank and interesting state- 
ments in this article, I find the following : 

"There are, of course, potent though superficial reasons for this 
general dislike of the German. The average German, whom the for- 
eigner sees, is aggressive, self-assertive, loud in his manner and talk, 
inconsiderate, petty, pompous, dictatorial, without humor; in a word, 
bumptious. He has, in many cases, exceedingly bad table manners 
and an almost gross enjoyment of his food ; and he talks about his ail- 
ments and his underwear. His attitude towards women, moreover, is 
likely to be over-gallant if he knows them a little and not too well, and 
discourteous or even insolent if he is married to them or does not 
know them at all. He is at his worst at the time when he is most on 
exhibition, when he is on his travels or helping other people to travel, 
as ticket-chopper or custom oificial." This is a graphic picture of the 
chosen people of God, the "greatest civilized people known to history." 
We have at least one German-American who understands the situation 
and has the frankness to tell the truth in very plain language. 

After reading this perfect description of the average German, we 
can well appreciate the magnitude of the task to which Providence 
has set His chosen people. This task is to coerce the world into an 
understanding and proper appreciation of the German people. This 
task is, indeed, a mighty undertaking which Providence has set before 
His people. The world must learn to appreciate bumptious people 
who have bad table manners and who are insolent to their wives and 
women they do not know very well. In considering so serious a mat- 
ter, we should be neither facetious nor sacrilegious, but we can hardly 
refrain from remarking that Providence has never before imposed so 
difficult a task on His elect. Had we not been told that this is a God- 
appointed task, we should question the possibility of the venture meet- 
ing with success. The people of the allied nations are appalled at the 
prospect when they are further told by this writer in The Outlook, 
"The Dutchman's back is against the wall . . . though devils should 
rise against us on all sides . . . still we should fight to the end." If 
this be the furor Teutonicus, the ultimatum and challenge to civliiza- 
tion,— "Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock." 

This eminent German-American further tells us, "politically, Ger- 
many was isolated by Edward VII, but socially the German people 
have always been isolated." When we consider the late propaganda 

39 



of the German people, it is not surprising that they have been politi- 
cally isolated, although Bernhardi has said that the German people 
are "the greatest civilized people known to history." The world is 
deeply indebted to Edward VII. He came from the house of Hanover, 
a German family. It took three generations of English association to 
refine and anglicize the Guelph family, but from the beginning of the 
reign of Victoria it has been intensely English. Edward VH was a 
polished Englishman, broad and statesmanlike and, in his efforts to 
isolate Germany, no doubt he recalled the policy and the words of 
Frederick the Great who said : "He is a fool, and that nation is a fool, 
who, having the power to strike his enemy unawares, does not strike 
and strike his deadliest." 

Accepting this picture of German character, temperatment and 
manners, so vividly presented by a learned German-American, we are 
not surprised to hear that the German has been always socially isolated, 
and we shall not be surprised if he should continue in social isolation. 
If we search for the cause of his political isolation we shall find it in 
the philosophy of Nietzsche and Bernhardi and the policies of Fred- 
erick the Great and Kaiser William II. If Germany were politically 
isolated by Edward VII, we know it was not done by force of arms, 
but by the inherent superiority of the people and institutions which 
Edward VII represented. Individuals sometimes buy their way into- 
polite society, but brigands have never been able to fight their way 
into respectability. If bushwhacking were the road to social promi- 
nence the Apaches and Moros would be the leaders of polite society. 

Modern German writers find nothing to appreciate in English 
literature or English statesmanship. In the judgment of Treitschke, 
"Macaulay exhibits a lack of philosophic culture that absolutely 
amazes us Germans. He says things that with us no sludent would 
dare say." Macaulay was not a philosopher and as an historian he was 
partisan ; however, it is not surprising that Germans who so devoutly 
accept the doctrine of divine right should find nothing in Macaulay's 
History which they can appreciate. Nor is it remarkable that the 
disciples of Nietzsche should find nothing to appreciate in Macaulay's 
judgment of Milton, and the "lofty disdain with which he looked down 
on temptations and dangers, the deadly hatred which he bore to bigots 
and tyrants, and the faith which he so sternly kept with his country 
and with his fame." We could hardly expect the followers of Bern- 
hardi to appreciate Macaulay's essay on John Bunyan, and his essay 
on the Earl of Chatham would not interest the average German who, 
we are informed, "is petty, pompous and dictatorial." When the elder 
Pitt, "the great commoner," was pleading the cause of the American 
colonists, when men, women and children of Boston, "high and low, 
rich and poor, joined in the chorus: Pitt and liberty," the petty states 

40 



of the Holy Roman Empire were in the embryo of nationality and the 
German people were listening to chickadee stories in the kindergarten 
of civilization. It has been said that the destinies of France "have 
been moulded by men's love for women," and that "nature bred a type 
of women fit to mate with the imaginative man." The brave and 
beautiful of France are united for self-preservation; they stand at 
Armageddon to meet the mighty hordes of German vandals who "have 
a gross enjoyment of their food" and who are "insolent to their wives 
and women they do not know." The world stands aghast at the dan- 
gers that beset the French and their institutions. "In France, es- 
pecially, the centre of thought, enthusiasm, and war, from the mighty 
fane of Paris downward, the churches were dedicated to Mary, and 
the vow of chivalry bound the knight to fight for God and for his 
lady." This is the France that has been invaded by the vandals who 
are "petty, dictatorial and inconsiderate," who are "insolent to their 
wives and women they do not know and who have a gross enjoyment 
of their food." All lower animals appear to "have a gross enjoyment 
of their food." 

Shall we remain silent and indifferent to the dangers that beset 
France? Have we forgotten Lafayette and Rochambeau? Have we 
forgotten the story of the dramatic scene when, with Franklin and 
John Adams, "Voltaire was solemnly received by the French Academy 
and philosophic France gave the right hand of fellowship to America 
as its child of adoption" ? The historian says : "Many causes com- 
bined to procure the alliance of France and the American republic; 
but the force which brought all influences harmoniously together, over- 
ruling the timorous levity of Maurepas and the dull reluctance of 
Louis XVI, was the moment of intellectual freedom. The spirit of 
free inquiry penetrated the Catholic world as it penetrated the Prot- 
estant world." 

The world, and America in particular, owes much to France. 
She has given freely of her best blood for the cause of humanity and 
the wisdom of her statesmen have guided and directed all peoples in 
search of human liberty. Her science has mitigated human suffering 
and prolonged life, her art has made the world more beautiful and 
delightful to live in, and her literature has amused and entertained, 
and it has instructed and mellowed mankind in all parts of the civil- 
ized world. Shall we here in America surrender de Tocqueville and 
adopt Bernhardi? Shall we cease to tell our children the story of 
Danton, Rouget de L'isle and Madam Roland? Shall we no longer 
arouse the idealism and quicken the lofty aspiration of our children 
with Chateaubriand and Rousseau? Shall we tell them that Nietzsche 
builded better than Hugo and that Bernhardi is greater than Thiers? 
Is the mighty War Lord of Germany a more learned, a wiser or better 

41 



ruler than that gentle and beloved man of the people, President Poin- 
caire? 

Are we not in danger of being drawn into this mighty maelstrom? 
Have we not had sufficient warning? The policies of Frederick the 
Great and Bismarck are a part of the world's history. We have seen 
Belgium struck down without warning, her splendid civilization 
trampled under foot and her brave people sacrificed on the altar of 
liberty, we have seen the devastation of France where the invading 
vandal has been able to penetrate and the very existence of this nation 
at hazard. England and her colonies are sending the flower of their 
land for the cause of humanity, Russia is advancing, united and with 
promises of greater liberty to her faithful people, and Japan is fighting 
in the common cause of humanity. Austria, Germany and Turkey are 
the mighty hordes arrayed, today as they have been in the past, 
against humanity. 

Shall we stand idle in this wreck and ruin of civilization, indiffer- 
ent to threatened destruction of the people who are our kin and the 
institutions from which our civilization has been evolved? Shall we 
not take heed, lest the only barrier between us and the mighty sweep 
of German vandalism be broken down? Will it be well for us when 
English democracy is supplanted by German absolutism, when the 
beauties of English literature are marred by German materialism and 
the comfort of English spiritualism and associations give way before 
German coarseness and brutality? 

When George III came to the English throne he undertook to 
restore absolutism of the Stuarts with his "rotten borough" system 
and other corrupt practices. George III was a stupid and vulgar 
German and his methods were essentially Germanic, his mental de- 
rangement was such that he became hopelessly insane. During the 
reign of George III, England was not so far advanced in democracy, 
nor so far removed from the dogma of divine right, that she could 
grant the just demands of the American colonies. But in those days, 
with a corrupt and mediaeval ruler on the throne, the principles of 
representative government were firmly established in the English con- 
stitution, and in all respects England was further advanced in civili- 
zation than other nations, the will of the sovereign was not the 
sentiment and judgment of the people and the people did not hesitate 
to make their wishes known. Our colonial fathers were not without 
friends at court and, not only America, but the world owes a great 
debt to England's greatest statemen, Pitt, Burke, and others who so 
ably and fearlessly advocated the cause of democracy. Shall we for- 
get the people who have been the conservators of human liberty, who 
from the Magna Charta to the Home Rule Bill, have steadily ad- 
vanced in the cause of representative government and civilization? 

42 



For more than two hundred years, the principles of representative 
government have followed the English flag. Wherever the English 
flag has appeared, the principles of representative government have 
taken root and while the growth has been slow it has never been up- 
rooted where the British flag remained. Every period of English 
history, from Milton and Cromwell, Hampden and Bunyan, to Lloyd 
George, Churchill, Asquith, Grey, Roberts and Kitchener, and other 
great leaders who are today standing for humanity, has been filled 
with words and deeds which have been an incentive to the youth of 
this country, a solace to patriots in all parts of the world. The poor 
and oppressed, the unfortunate and needy, from famished India, deso- 
late Africa, from oppressed Germany and the far East, have turned to 
England for comfort and help ; and the persecuted of all races have 
found asylum in England where they were secure in life and liberty. 

In words and deeds the English people have shown their sympa- 
thy for the oppressed of all races and during many years they have 
given protection and material aid to those engaged in democratic 
struggles for humanity. To the Balkan States and Greece they have 
extended a helping hand, and the stand which Great Britain took 
under Lord Palmerston was in sympathy with the Italian people in 
their struggle for liberty and enabled Cavour to drive the Austrians 
from Italy. England opposed the war of Austria and Prussia against 
Denmark in 1864 and the English people have been sincerely sympa- 
thetic with democratic struggles in all parts of the world. For more 
than two hundred years Great Britain has sheltered Christendom. 
Shall we see this "lofty tree, under whose shade the nations of the 
earth have reposed, deprived of its branches, and the sapless trunk 
left to wither on the ground" ? 

This war is a willful and premeditated attack on democratic in- 
stitutions of the most highly cultivated races in every part of the world. 
Germany has been flaunting her military for a generation and, all 
along, she has been arrogant and bumptious; it has been offensive 
and dangerous, and civilization has grown tired of the strain. Austria 
is archaic and effete. The hope of civilization is that this mighty struggle 
will end in the annihilation of the Hapsburg and Hohenzollern dynas- 
ties, and that the unfortunate subjects of those autocracies will be able 
to establish something in the form of a constitutional government by 
the people. 

Neither the Austro-Hungarian, nor the German Empire, repre- 
sents anything in its civic or political code which appeals to the ideals 
of the American people. The house of Hapsburg has been a most per- 
sistent and merciless enemy of republican institutions. Its history, for 
seven centuries, has been a tragic story of continuing and aggressive 
warfare against political liberty and civic uplift of the people; it has 

43 



fought every reform and every democratic movement in Europe since 
the twelfth century. The history of the Hohenzollern family has been 
but little better than the Hapsburg. If anyone doubt the dogmatic 
superstition and dangerous policies of the present head of the Hoh- 
enzollern family, let him read these words, spoken by the Kaiser to 
his soldiers: "Remember that the German people are the chosen of 
God. On me, as German Emperor, the spirit of God has descended. 
I am His weapon. His sword and His vice regent. Woe to the diso- 
bedient, death to the cowards and unbelievers." 

Is this the dogma of the German people, the shibboleth of the 
German army? We must so regard it because it is the dictum of Ger- 
man lordship and we find it written in blood where the German army 
has invaded Belgium. It is difficult for an American citizen of ordi- 
nary intelligence to comprehend the words of the German kaiser, and 
we can hardly believe the evidence which has been furnished in sup- 
port of the charges which have been made against the German army. 
We are told that the Kaiser is greatly admired and beloved by his 
people. His words and his deeds are before us and there is no con- 
flict in his declarations and his acts. 

His words may be the dogma of the German war party. They 
do not represent the thought or sentiment of Kant, the great philoso- 
pher, whose "fidelity to human freedom has never been questioned 
and never can be." "The rights of man," he said, "are dear to God, 
are the apple of the eye of God on earth." And the words of the 
Kaiser are not the thoughts of Lessing, who said : "The chief of a 
commonwealth, governing a free people by their free choice, has a 
halo that never surrounded a king." And Herder said, "The boldest, 
most godlike thoughts of the human mind, the most beautiful and 
greatest works, have been perfected in republics ; not only in an- 
tiquity, but in the mediaeval and more modern times, the best history, 
the best philosophy of humanity and government, is always republi- 
can ; and the republic exerts its influence, not by direct intervention, 
but mediately by its mere existence." Klopstock "beheld in the 
American war the inspiration of humanity and the dawn of an ap- 
proaching great day." Goethe, Germany's greatest writer and one of 
the greatest of the world, "classed the Boston tea-party of 1773 among 
the prodigious events which stamped themselves most deeply on his 
mind in childhood." He wished the Americans success, and "the names 
of Franklin and Washington shone and sparkled in his heaven of politics 
and war." The absolutism and coarseness and brutality of the German 
Kaiser finds no support in the teachings of the truly great men of Ger- 
many. 

The doctrine of the German Emperor of today expresses the faith 

44 



and policies of Mohammed the Great ; in fact, the language of the 
Kaiser is substantially the words of that mighty sultan of six hundred 
years ago. It is the religion of the Spanish Inquisition, the fanati- 
cism of the dervishes who were destroyed by Kitchener at Omdurman. 
And the military genius who vanquished the dervishes will be one 
of the potent agencies in ridding the world of this German fanatic. 

A people who accept, and offer their lives in defense of, such 
dangerous doctrines can not be highly civilized. But it is the shib- 
boleth of the German army and it is not surprising that an army fight- 
ing in such a campaign and under such leadership should be easily 
provoked to frenzy, perpetrating the most revolting cruelties. No 
American, to the manner born, who retains a spark of virile patriotism, 
can give aid or sympathy to a people or nation supporting so perni- 
cious a doctrine as the Kaiser has promulgated. Nor can any good 
American, with any degree of self-respect, listen to the advocates of a 
dogma which strikes at the very foundation of American institutions. 
German arrogance and militarism have no place in modern civiliza- 
tion ; the blood and iron policy is no less offensive to our social insti- 
tutions than to our liberties. Dollars and guns, which have been so 
extensively advertised as German policy, supported by Hohenzollern 
fanaticism, do not appeal to the highest ideals of the American people. 

The armed propagandism of. the German Emperor is a menace 
to the peace of the world ; a threat against democratic principles of 
government in all parts of the world. Against this propaganda of 
divine right, with all its consequent ills, the English speaking people 
have been fighting since the time of Cromwell. The eloquence of 
Patrick Henry, the Statute for Religious Freedom and the Declara- 
tion of Independence were all directed against this doctrine. It is a 
relic of medievalism, ignorance, superstition and serfdom, and its 
last vestige of respectability vanished with the passing of the Holy 
Roman Empire. Among many other good things which the French 
Revolution did for the cause of humanity was the complete annihila- 
tion of the Holy Roman Empire. The last effort to revive that ob- 
solete dogmatism was a few weeks after Waterloo, when the emperors 
of Austria, Russia and the king of Prussia were at Paris. Alexander, 
of Russia, "spent entire days at Paris, to the exclusion of all other 
business, in mystical communication of sentiments with Madame de 
Krudener," a pietist. The result of the influence of that fanatic was 
the Treaty of the Holy Alliance. The answer of the liberty loving 
English speaking people, supported by Great Britain, was the Monroe 
Doctrine. This Monroe Doctrine is a vital question of American policy 
today, and it is opposed to German absolutism and present policy of 
German expansion. 

45 



The situation in Europe has been very clearly and phophetically 
stated by Winston Churchill in these words: "Now the impact is 
on us. Our blood which flows in your veins should lead you to ex- 
pect that we shall be stubborn enough to bear the impact. But if we 
go down and are swept in ruin into the past, you are the next. 

"This war is for us a war of honor, of respect for obligations, 
into which we have entered, and of loyalty towards friends in des- 
perate need. But now that it has begun, it has become a war of self- 
preservation. The British democracy, with its limited monarchy, its 
ancient parliament, its ardent social and philanthropic systems, is en- 
gaged for good or for ill in a deadly grapple with the formidable might 
of Prussian autocratic rule." 

Since the beginning of this war, the press, in certain sections of 
the United States, largely under German-American influence, has 
been crammed with German propagandism. When war was declared, 
a great demonstration was held in Chicago and hyphenated Americans 
sent expressions of sympathy and support to the imperial government 
in Germany. Neither English, French, Belgian or Russian, in the 
United States found it necessary or advisable to talk so much or to 
print so much in defense of the policies of either of these countries. 
The query naturally suggests itself : Why have the German-Americans 
found it necessary to talk so much and publish so much in defense 
of a government the principles and practices of which are so danger- 
ous to American institutions? 

When the reports of the appalling atrocities in Belgium reached 
this country, we had another deluge of newspaper articles from Ger- 
man-Americans, who were four-thousand miles from where the al- 
leged atrocities occurred. When a commission from a sovereign state 
came to this country they were properly received by the president. 
This commission presented specific charges, in a formal and proper 
manner. German-Americans who could not be competent witnesses, 
simply because they have no personal knowledge of the matter under 
consideration, came forward with demands for further hearing. It 
was conveniently arranged for lengthy articles, from correspondents 
of Chicago papers, to appear in print a few hours after the Belgian 
Commission had filed its indictments. These newspaper articles were 
written by correspondents of intelligence, experience and integrity, 
but not one of these articles contains a categorical answer to a single 
charge which has been made. Neither of the correspondents, accord- 
ing to his own statement, had an opportunity, or did not avail him- 
self of an opportunity, to investigate one of the accusations that has 
been made. These writers have simply reported impressions and 
opinions. They have graphically, and in the most fulsome manner, 

46 



extolled the gracious hospitality of the German army officers. This 
evidence of afifable demeanor and considerate attention to American 
guests is no answer to the specific charges. Moreover, other writers 
of long experience and international reputation of ability and integrity, 
have testified to the evidence of cruelty and vandalism which have 
come under their personal observation. Richard Harding Davis was 
an eye-witness to the razing of Louvain. From the pathetic story he 
has told, I take the following: 

"For two hours Thursday night I was in what for 600 years 
had been the city of Louvain. The Germans were burning it and to 
hide their work kept us locked in the railroad carriages, but the story 
was written against the sky and was told to us by the German sol- 
diers, incoherent with excess. We could read it in the faces of the 
women and children being led to concentration camps to be shot. Like 
flocks of sheep, they were rounded up and marched through the 
night to concentration camps. We were not allowed to speak to any 
citizen of Louvain, but the Germans crowded the windows, boastful, 
gloating, eager to interpret. 

"No one defends the sniper, but because the ignorant Mexicans, 
when their city was invaded, fired upon our sailors we did not destroy 
Vera Cruz. Even had we bombarded Vera Cruz money could have 
restored it. Money can not restore Louvain and its people's handi- 
work belonging to the world. With torch and dynamite the Germans 
have turned their masterpieces into ashes and all the Kaiser's horses 
and all his men can not bring them back again." 

The Duke of Alva, who pillaged Belgium more than three hun- 
dred years ago, came from an illustrious family and was educated in 
military science and politics, with all the accomplishments of a Span- 
ish grandee. His hospitality to Counts Egmont and Hoorne were 
according to the regal custom of that period ; the murder of his guests 
was according to the cruel and cowardly practices of that ferocious 
and vindictive grandee. The inhuman Alva was always debonair, even 
when he directed the "Council of Blood." So was Mohammed H, a 
man of education ; he spoke five languages fluently and was well 
versed in the natural sciences and fine arts. It is little comfort to the 
homeless and bereaved of Belgium to learn that their homes were 
burned and their aged kin murdered under the direction of German 
army officers who had been educated and trained in the art of enter- 
taining. 

The world's verdict on the bloody Alva was expressed by Motley 
in these words: "Such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient 
vindictiveness, and universal bloodthirstiness has never been found in 
a savage beast of the forest, and but rarely in a human being." When 

47 



the verdict of the world is made up on the record of the war lord of 
Germany, who calls himself the vice regent and weapon of God, upon 
whom the spirit of God has descended, he will be placed in the same 
class of ferocious vandals as the Duke of Alva. Attila, Alva and Wil- 
liam II, of Germany, have been the scourge of the Low Countries. 

The present afflictions of the Belgians are the result of no aggres- 
sion, infringement or encroachment on their part. They are the 
innocent victims sacrificed in a ruthless breach of the most sacred 
obligation which a nation can enter into, an obligation which has been 
held to be the supreme law of a sovereign state. Belgium is small in 
area but large in history. Caesar said, "The Belgians are the bravest 
of all," and for two thousand years they have held an important place 
in history. They have been thrifty in peace and brave in war and 
have made their place in history. We respect the Belgians for the 
history they have made ; we deeply sympathize with these brave people 
in their present distress and bereavement and we honor them for their 
heroic devotion to their country and their honor. The brutal violation 
of Belgian neutrality will live in history as the most appalling crime of 
the century. 

The scene of the present struggle in Europe was a great battle 
field in a conflict between the Belgian and French ancestors and the 
Huns, under the leadership of Attila, "the scourge of God." And there 
are several points of striking similarity, not only in the location of the 
conflict, but also in the avowed purpose and in the cruel practices of 
the invading vandals. There is an impressive and pathetic similarity 
in the vandalism of "the scourge of God" fifteen hundred years 
ago, and the vice regent and weapon of God today. Removed from 
the present environment of civilization, the vice regent of God is the 
twin brother of the "scourge of God." A common Tartar ancestry 
seems evident and the anthropologist could easily trace the house of 
Hohenzollern back to the most distinguished king of the Huns. 

There has been no manifestation of prejudice against the German 
people in this country. They are thrifty and progressive, their educa- 
tional development, industrial and commercial expansion and their ef- 
ficiency in administration are fully appreciated. But the people of the 
German Empire are the subjects of a bigoted autocrat who has no 
respect for treaty obligations, the law of nations, or any other legal 
or moral obligation which stands in the way of his aggressive mili- 
tarism. We have sincere sympathy for Germans in this country who 
have kin and friends in the German army, but we have little charity 
for those who call themselves American citizens while they support 
the dogmas and practices of the German government. Those who can 
not support the American government, who can not be faithful, in 

48 



words and deeds, to our institutions, should return to their native 
country. The newspapers report that 5,000 German-Americans, at a 
meeting in New York, "hailed the day when the German flag should 
fly over Paris and London." There is no present occasion for appre- 
hension at the prospect of the German flag flying over Paris and Lon- 
don, but the suggestion is offensive to the American people. Hyphen- 
ated Americans who would like to see the German flag flying over Paris 
and London ought to leave this country and try to put the flag where 
they want it. No patriotic American wants to see the German flag 
flying over Paris and London. 

Our sympathy with the Allies is evidence of our faith in demo- 
cratic institutions and our desire to encourage and support every 
effort to establish and maintain republican form of government. Ger- 
man absolutism and militarism are a menace to the principles which 
our fathers proclaimed at Philadelphia and defended at Bunker Hlil 
and Cowpens. We believe in democracy; Bernhardi says, "There 
never have been, and never will be, universal rights of men." Eng- 
land, France and Belgium are fighting the battles of democracy and 
civilization, against German teachings and German policies. Wher 
our fathers established this government, they abrogated the obsolete 
doctrine of divine right and the teachings of the absolutist, and in 
place of these despotic measures which had so long oppressed man- 
kind, they set up the sovereign citizen. Having successfully combated 
the ancient fetish of divine right, we have turned our attention to the 
modern fetish of materialism which has eaten the soul of the German 
people and threatens the life of this nation. With the advancing intel- 
ligence of our citizens, and a courageous faith in the potentialities of 
democracy, we hope to be able to maintain the stability of our govern- 
ment and to overcome the aggressive forces of materialism. 

German espionage obtains in every part of this country, as it 
has in every other country where it has not been suppressed ; it is a 
present peril which is a menace to our peace and security. German 
leagues in this country are attacking our democratic system, ridiculing 
our Congress and directing the influence of powerful industrial combi- 
nations in support of men and measures dangerous to our government. 
German-American leagues whose members are American citizens, 
qualified electors who have full protection of our government and all 
possible advantages of our industrial growth, are systematically direct- 
ing their efforts along lines that threaten the peace of the nation. We 
are not prepared to meet an open foe. Under the blessings of peace, 
we have not prepared for war. In the present crisis we should prepare 
for any eventualities, and we should suppress with public opinion, and 
stronger measures, if any be necessary, this anti-democratic, anti- 

49 



American spirit which is being used in the interest of Germany. A 
spirit of American patriotism should be aroused which will destroy, or 
at least silence, our enemies within and prepare to meet enemies who 
may come from without. Let us not feel too secure in our liberties 
nor too boastful in the potentialities of our vast resources and popula- 
tion. When Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem many 
evil tidings came to him, and many threats were made by Sanballat 
and Tobiah who mocked the Jews. "And it came to pass from that 
time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work and half of 
them held the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail. 
. . . Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with 
the other held his weapon." We should take warning and while we 
build we should be prepared for all possible contingencies. 

This is a war in the interest of imperialism and for the extension 
of territory and the expansion of trade. We can not disregard the 
responsibilities of the situation, nor will we be able to escape its gen- 
eral efifect. Our government was instituted on the broad, democratic 
principle, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are 
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these 
rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed." We believe that we have 
established the wisdom and administrative efficiency of our principle 
of government, and that we have shown, by experience and practical 
demonstration, that it is possible for all civilized, white races to live 
together in peace, under democratic institutions and a common repub- 
lican form of government. Indeed, under the necessities of our situa- 
tion, we have undertaken to show that the operation of our principle 
and form of government need not be limited to the white races. This 
expansion of our theory to include all races is yet in an experimental 
stage, but the principle and policy has been supported by many of our 
ablest statesmen and we have sacrificed many valuable lives and great 
treasure in order to write the expansion of this principle into our 
organic law. We have taken these fundamental principles of govern- 
ment to Cuba and the Philippine Islands and we are trying to estab- 
lish them in Mexico. If our theories are not correct and can not be 
maintained on a stable basis, our government is a monumental failure. 
As a nation we must, for the present, be neutral ; if we still have faith 
in republican form of government, we can not be neutral in our sym- 
pathies. 

God has appointed no vice regent in this country, nor do we be- 
lieve that we are the chosen people of God ; charity is God's vice regent 
— truth, virtue and liberty His only weapons in this country. The 

50 



sword will be placed in the hand of no man, except by the will 
of the people. In the most troublous period of this nation's his- 
tory there came from the people a Christ-like man, who published 
and practised the doctrine of "malice toward none, with charity for 
all." In the life of that illustrious man this nation found "a new birth 
of freedom" and a resolve "that government of the people, by" the 
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The vice re- 
gent of God who sacked Louvain will find no place in the hearts of the 
people who revere the memory of Abraham Lincoln. 

"Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none." 
If in the story of those heroic deeds we find an inspiration, what splen- 
did monuments will be built on the ruins of Louvain ; and in the hearts 
of our children the memory of the men who fell at Liege will be an 
incentive to the highest ideals of a brave and cultured people. If it 
be true that a land without ruins is a land without memories, what 
eloquent memories are found in the land of the Belgians. 

"The triumphs of might are transient— they pass and are forgot- 
ten—the sufferings of right are graven deepest on the chronicle of 
nations." 

"For out of the gloom future brightness is born, 
As after the night comes the sunrise of morn ; 
And the graves of the dead with the grass overgrown 
May yet form the footstool of liberty's throne. 
And each single wreck in the war-path of might, 
Shall yet be a rock in the temple of right." 



With Red Eyes 

(Reprinted by permission of The Outlook.) 

Those who are dwelling in the track of a forest fire have little 
inclination to theorize upon the chemical prenomenon that is trans- 
forming their homes into gray ash. Fire is to them a terror that flies 
both by night and by day, a demon to be fought that life itself may 
endure. 

In such a time of dread, conduct is not so much a matter of 
formula as of emotion. We can judge the lives of fire-fighters and 
fire-fleers only when we know the measure of their passion. 

For us who watch the consuming devastation in Europe from the 
vantage-point of a neutral country, there is oftentimes the temptation 

61 



of passing a too academic judgment upon the motives of the belliger- 
ents. We weigh white paper against white, orange with gray, and 
then, secure in our own opinions, wonder why our conclusions are not 
universally accepted. From passionate people we demand cool logic. 
In frenzy we look for ordered reason. From eyes red with hate we 
ask judicial vision. 

Hate and passion we can indeed appraise at their true worth — 
condemning or sustaining the justifications ofifered for their existence, 
according to the evidence of history. None the less is it true that, if 
we ourselves would see clearly, we cannot simply choose to ignore the 
direct expression of these national passions and national hates. They 
are, indeed, a vital element in the Story of the War. 

That is why in this place we print two poems. One is by Ernst 
Lissauer, translated from "Jugend" by Barbara Henderson, and re- 
cently published in the New York "Times" ; the other is by Henry 
Chappell, a name that may be familiar to some of our readers as that 
of the "railway poet of Bath." 



A Chant of Hate Against England 

By Ernst Lissauer in "Jugend" 

Rendered into English verse by Barbara Henderson 

Reprinted from the New York "Times" 

French and Russian, they matter not, 
A blow for a blow and a shot for a shot ; 
We love them not, we hate them not, 
We hold the Weichsel and Vosges-gate, 
We have but one and only hate, 
We love as one, we hate as one, 
We have one foe and one alone. 

He is known to you all, he is known to you all, 
He crouches behind the dark-gray flood, 
Full of envy, of rage, of craft, of gall. 
Cut off by waves that are thicker than blood. 
Come, let us stand at the Judgment place, 
An oath to swear to, face to face, 
An oath of bronze no wind can shake. 
An oath for our sons and their sons to take. 

53 



Come, hear the word, repeat the word, 
Throughout the Fatherland make it heard. 
We will never forego our hate, 
We have all but a single hate 
We love as one, we hate as one. 
We have one foe and one alone — 
ENGLAND! 

In the captain's mess, in the banquet-hall, 
Sat feasting the officers, one and all, 
Like a saber blow, like the swing of a sail, 
One seized his glass held high to hail ; 
Sharp-snapped like the stroke of a rudder's play, 
Spoke three words only: "To the Day!" 
Whose glass this fate? 
They had all but a single hate. 
Who was thus known? 
They had one foe and one alone — 
ENGLAND! 

Take you the folk of the earth in pay, 
With bars of gold your ramparts lay, 
Bedeck the ocean with bow on bow, 
Ye reckon well, but not well enough now. 
French and Russian, they matter not, 
A blow for a blow, a shot for a shot. 
We fight the battle with bronze and steel, 
And the time that is coming Peace will seal. 
You will we hate with a lasting hate, 
We will never forego our hate, 
Hate by water and hate by land, 
Hate of the head and hate of the hand. 
Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown. 
Hate of seventy millions, choking down. 
We love as one, we hate as one. 
We have one foe and one alone — 
ENGLAND! 



53 



The Day 

By Henry Chappell 

You boasted the Day, and you toasted the Day, 

And now the Day has come ; 
Blasphemer, braggart, and coward all, 
Little you reck of the numbing ball, 
The blasting shell, or the "White arm's" fall. 

As they speed poor humans home. 

You spied for the Day, you lied for the Day^ 

And woke the Day's red spleen ; 
Monster, who asked God's aid divine. 
Then strewed His seas with the ghastly mine — 
Not all the waters of all the Rhine 

Can wash thy foul hands clean. 

You dreamed for the Day, you schemed for the Day, 

Watch how the Day will go; 
Slayer of age and youth and prime 
(Defenseless slain for never a crime), 
Thou art steeped in blood as a hog in slime — 

False friend and cowardly foe. 

You have sown for the Day, you have grown for the Day, 

Yours is the Harvest red ; 
Can you hear the groans and the awful cries? 
Can you see the heap of the slain that lies. 
And sightless turned to the flame-split skies 

The glassy eyes of the dead ? 

You have longed for the Day, you have wronged for the Day 

That lit the awful flame. 
'Tis nothing to you that hill and plain 
Yield sheaves of dead men amid the grain ; 
That widows mourn for their loved ones slain, 

And mothers curse thy name! 

But after the Day there's a price to pay 

For the sleepers under the sod ; 
And He you have mocked for many a day — 
Listen, and hear what he has to say : 

"Vengeance is mine, I will repay." 
What can you say to God? 

54 



(Reprinted from The Outlook, of Sept. 9, 1914.) 

Louvain 

The destruction of Louvain by an unknown German military- 
commander is an act of brutality absolutely unjustified by the rules 
of war. Nor is it any excuse for this act of brutality to say that war 
is brutal. Civilized war is cruel, but not brutal. The difference 
between a man and a brute is that the brute acts under impulse, 
guided only by his instincts, while the man guides his action by 
intelligence. The cruelty of civilized war is an intelligent cruelty — 
that is, it is cruelty directed by intelligence to a definite purpose. 
Any cruelty in war not so directed is justly termed brutal. We do 
not attempt in this article to judge acts in war by the ethical stand- 
ards accepted in times of peace. We judge warlike actions by war 
standards. To all Americans familiar with military literature the 
volume of General W. E. Birkhimer, of the United States General 
Staff, on "Military Government and Martial Law" will be recognized 
as an authority. The principles assumed in this editorial are derived 
from and based on this volume. 

The object in war is the destruction of the enemy's army. Any 
military acts necessary for the destruction of the enemy's army are 
in general justified by military law — that is, by the customs of civil- 
ized nations. Any acts not directly tending to aid in the destruction 
of the enemy's army are unjustified. 

The destruction of Louvain had no tendency to promote the 
objects which the German army has in view. It was an unintelligent 
act of vandalism. Therefore it was an act of brutality. 

The destruction of Louvain did nothing to aid the army of 
invasion. For Louvain was not a strategic point which might be 
of advantage to the armies of the Allies if it was left intact. 

The destruction of Louvain did nothing to weaken the army of 
the Allies. It added strength to them ; for it has filled the Belgians 
and the French with an enthusiasm, of wrath, and enthusiasm of 
wrath adds greatly to the fighting force of an army. 

The destruction of Louvain did nothing to protect European 
civilization from the Slav. On the contrary, it has aroused in the 
Slav a spirit of revenge, and Germans are fleeing from Berlin in fear 
of Russia's retaliation. 

The destruction of Louvain has done nothing to aid Germany 
to make herself a world power. By that destruction she has aroused 
the indignation of the civilized world, an indignation which will out- 
last this terrible war. This is not the way to secure a world power. 

The destruction of Louvain has done nothing to unite Germany 
against a united Europe. On the contrary, it has brought from the 

55 



Berlin Socialist "Vorwaerts" a protest which warns the Germans 
against putting the struggle in a wrong light in the eyes of all the 
world and which calls upon the working class who are fighting at 
the front to remember their brethren on the other side and behave 
toward them in chivalrous manner. It is safe to assume that no 
paper in Germany would venture to suggest such a protest if it did 
not voice the sentiment of a considerable section of the German 
people. 

The defense offered for this act of vandalism is that civilians, 
after Louvain was occupied by the German army, shot German 
soldiers, and the city was destroyed as an act of reprisal. The 
shooting of soldiers in an occupied town by unorganized civilians is 
an act of murder, and should be treated accordingly. But the crimi- 
nal acts of a few individuals do not justify the destruction of a city. 
Says the Hague Conventions (Section 3, Article I) : "No general 
penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted on the population 
on account of the acts of individuals, for which it cannot be regarded 
as collectively responsible." And in this declaration the Hague Con- 
ventions simply affirmed concisely a principle recognized by the 
customs of civilized nations in warfare. 

The wave of indignation which has swept over America because 
of this criminal act cannot be regarded as an anti-German prejudice. 
Our soldiers when in occupation of Vera Cruz were shot at and 
killed by civilians. By vigorous police measures this "sniping" was 
speedily stopped. If the American troops had burned Vera Cruz, 
the American indignation would have far exceeded any indignation 
which Americans have thus far expressed at the act of the German 
troops in Louvain, and yet the loss to the world in the destruction 
of the beautiful city of Louvain far exceeds any loss that would have 
been suffered by the destruction of Vera Cruz. And if the Russians 
should reach Berlin and should do work of destruction in that city 
in any respect resembling the work done by the unknown com- 
mander in Louvain, The Outlook would condemn such act of reprisal 
as vigorously as it here condemns the destruction of Louvain, and 
we believe it would be equally condemned by all civilized peoples 
throughout the world. 

"My great maxim," said Napoleon, "has always been in war, as 
well as in politics, that every evil action, even if legal, can only be 
executed in case of absolute necessity ; whatsoever goes beyond that 
is criminal." 

We do not believe that any great number of German-American 
citizens, we shall not believe without conclusive evidence that the 
majority of Germans in Germany, or that the Kaiser hmself, justify 
what history will call the crime at Louvain. 

56 



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